THE  COMPOSITION  OF 

THE 

ILIAD 

AUSTIN 

SMYTH 

imamisaabiksfi 

(, 


THE    COMPOSITION    OF 
THE    ILIAD 


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THE  COMPOSITION 
OF  THE   ILIAD 

AN  ESSAY   ON 
A  NUMERICAL  LAW  IN  ITS  STRUCTURE 


BY 


AUSTIN  SMYTH,  M.A. 

LATE  FELLOW  OF  TRINITY  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE 
LIBRARIAN  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS 


0^04  yap  TYjv  'Ofvqpov  TroLrjariv  crKeSacr^cwrav  ifivrjfwvevov 
jcat  iTTijyyeXXoV'  eAv/A^vavro  Se  avrrjv  Travv. 

Scho/.  Find.  Nem.  II.  i 


LONGMANS,    GREEN    AND    CO. 

39   PATERNOSTER   ROW,   LONDON 

NEW  YORK,  BOMBAY,  AND  CALCUTTA 

1914 


All  rights  reserved 


PREFACE 

The  object  of  this  essay  is  to  demonstrate  that 
the  Iliad  of  Homer  at  one  time  consisted  of  13,500 
lines,  neither  more  nor  less,  divided  into  45  sections 
of  300  verses  each,  with  major  divisions  after  the 
15th  and  30th  of  these;  from  which  it  follows  that 
the  remaining  2193  verses,  which  appear  in  our 
present  texts,  are  more  recent  additions  and  ought 
to  be  removed. 

The  importance  of  this  proposition,  if  established, 
will  be  evident  to  lovers  of  the  poem.  I  will  not 
dilate  on  it,  but  endeavour  to  establish  it,  after 
saying  one  thing  more. 

I  profoundly  dissent  from  that  general  view  of 
the  poem  which  regards  its  constitution  as  a  secular 
growth,  and  of  which,  no  doubt,  the  foremost  expo- 
nent in  our  country  is  Dr.  Leaf.  And  I  am  obliged 
to  controvert  his  views  at  particular  points,  while 
heartily  agreeing  at  others.  It  is  possible  that,  in 
the  ardour  of  discussion,  I  may  have  used  some 
words  which  seem  to  disparage  this  eminent  scholar. 


nOi  f\Or^ 


vi    THE  COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

though  I  cannot  think  it  the  case.  But  should  any 
such  impression  arise,  I  desire  to  efface  it  by  saying 
the  truth,  that  his  edition  of  the  Iliad  commands 
my  deepest  admiration,  and  that  without  it,  as  the 
reader  will  shortly  perceive,  I  could  hardly  have 
proceeded  at  all. 


CONTENTS 


rxcB 

Preface  v 


CHAPTER   I 

Book  the  First  to  Book  the  Eighth  .         .         .         i 

CHAPTER   II 
Book  the  Ninth  to  Book  the  Sixteenth    .         .       53 

CHAPTER   III 

Book   the   Seventeenth   to   Book   the  Twenty- 
Fourth  106 

CHAPTER    IV 

Book   the    Second,   Book    the    First,   and   Con- 
clusion   160 

Appendix  on  the  Odyssey 219 


THE    COMPOSITION    OF    THE 
ILIAD 

CHAPTER   I 

BOOK  THE   FIRST   TO   BOOK   THE   EIGHTH 

As  the  use  of  writing  appears  to  have  been  but  little 
known  to  the  Greeks  of  Homer's  age,  it  seemed  to 
me  a  natural  thing  to  inquire  whether  there  might 
not  be  found  in  the  Homeric  poems  some  artificial 
aid  to  their  preservation  in  the  memory  of  man. 
The  simplest  of  such  aids  is  that  of  number.  I 
therefore  started  an  inquiry  into  the  numerical  length 
of  any  distinct  group  of  incidents  in  the  structure  of 
the  Iliad.  For  if  it  was  known  that  each  such  group 
was  exactly  comprehended  in  a  certain  number  of 
lines,  then  the  several  persons  to  whose  memory  it 
was  committed  could  test  the  accuracy  of  their 
knowledge  from  time  to  time,  and,  if  it  was  found 
to  be  at  fault,  could  easily  repair  the  defect  by 
communication  amongst  themselves.  In  the  course 
of  this  inquiry  I  could  not  help  being  struck  by  the 
fact  that  the  incidents  which  fall  between  two  im- 
portant moments  in  the  poem  are  often  comprised 

A 


2         COMPOSITION   OF  THE  ILIAD 

'within  ei'thfef  the  "exact  number  of  300  lines,  or  a 
number  not  much  exceeding  it.  And  upon  examin- 
ing the  latter  class  of  cases  still  further,  in  the  light 
of  those  suspicions  which  scholars  had  antecedently 
been  led  to  cast  on  particular  lines,  I  found  that  they 
could  be  reduced  to  the  round  number  of  300  with 
surprising  neatness  and  ease.  And  upon  applying 
this  observation  to  passages  of  larger  extent,  which 
lie  between  two  of  the  others,  I  found  that  the  sus- 
pected passages  regularly  increased  in  size  as  well, 
being  chiefly  composed  of  long  genealogies  or  popular 
tales,  not  very  relevant  to  the  context.  And  upon 
pursuing  this  hint  in  a  systematic  way  throughout 
the  poem,  I  gained  so  clear  an  idea  of  its  articulation 
and  proportion  as  to  convince  me  that  I  had  dis- 
covered an  instrument  which,  whether  it  was  designed 
or  not  to  preserve  the  purity  of  the  poem,  might 
enable  us  to  fix  the  extent  of  its  interpolation  after 
a  time  when  this  law  of  composition  was  either  for- 
gotten or  ceased  to  be  observed,  and  to  mark  down 
in  most  cases  with  practical  certainty  the  interpolated 
lines. 

The  First  Book  affords  a  fitting  introduction  to 
our  theory.  It  contains  611  lines.  A  natural  pause 
occurs  at  verse  311,  with  the  breaking  up  of  the 
assembly,  after  which  the  action  follows  two  main 
branches  :  first,  the  voyage  of  Odysseus  to  Chryse, 
and  then  the  taking  away  of  Briseis  from  Achilles, 
with  the  subsequent  interview  of  Achilles  and  Thetis, 


BOOK   FIRST  TO  BOOK   EIGHTH       3 

and  the  consequent  interview  of  Thetis  and  Zeus. 
These  events  are  exactly  comprised  in  the  last  300 
lines  of  the  book.  This  leaves  us  with  311  lines  in 
the  first  part.  Now  there  is  a  passage  of  Nestor's 
speech  to  the  kings,  in  which  he  names  the  chiefs 
of  the  Lapithae,  touches  on  their  battle  with  the 
Centaurs,  and  describes  the  part  that  he  played  in 
it  himself.  One  of  these  verses  has  excited  the 
suspicion  of  every  modern  scholar,  because  it  men- 
tions the  name  of  Theseus  and  recurs  in  the  Hesiodic 
poem  of  the  Shield  of  Heracles ;  but  Dr.  Leaf  is  dis- 
posed to  regard  the  whole  passage  relating  to  the 
Lapithae  as  an  interpolation,  this  being  a  very  favourite 
Attic  legend,  not  much  known  elsewhere.  But  all 
that  is  said  about  the  Lapithae  is  exactly  contained  in 
the  II  verses  262-272.  These  you  can  detach,  and 
leave  a  perfectly  coherent  text ;  but  you  cannot  detach 
another  line  without  injuring  the  context.  "  Ere 
now,"  says  Nestor  to  the  wrangling  kings,  "  I  have 
mixed  among  warriors  even  better  than  yourselves, 
and  never  used  they  to  make  light  of  me.  And 
they  would  attend  to  my  advice  and  hearken  to  my 
words.  Then  hearken  also  you."  This  is  all  quite 
coherent.  But  between  the  first  and  second  sentence 
come  the  words,  "  For  never  yet  have  I  seen,  nor 
am  likely  to  see,  such  men  as  Peirithous  and  Dryas 
and  Caeneus  and  Exadius  and  godlike  Polyphemus 
and  Theseus,  son  of  Aegeus,  who  resembled  the 
immortal  gods,"  and  so  on  for  1 1  lines.     The  neat- 


4         COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

ness  with  which  the  verses  go  out  would  in  any  case 
be  some  argument  for  their  interpolation.  The  fact 
that,  when  excised,  they  leave  exactly  300  lines  before 
the  pause  is  to  myself,  knowing  what  I  do,  a  con- 
vincing proof  that  they  ought  to  be  removed.  We 
shall  hereafter  find  two  facts  in  support  of  this  view ; 
first,  that  the  speeches  of  Nestor  are  a  regular  matrix 
for  the  foreign  ore,  and  secondly,  that  a  Lapith 
or  the  Lapithae  are  thrice  again  excluded  by  the 
tercentenary  test. 

We  thus  obtain  two  distinct  passages  of  300  lines 
apiece,  which  I  call  Canto  I  and  Canto  II.  Now  it 
might  easily  be  an  accident  that  the  First  Book 
consists  of  600  lines.  But  it  is  not  so  like  an 
accident  both  that  it  should  consist  of  600  lines 
and  that  its  bisection  after  verse  300  should  coin- 
cide with  a  natural  division  of  the  incidents.  This 
reveals  some  first  faint  traces  of  design. 

I  pass  over  for  the  present  the  first  part  of  the 
Second  Book,  for  it  is  well  known  to  be  one  of  the 
most  puzzling  series  of  incidents  in  the  whole  of 
the  poem,  and  I  must  inspire  greater  trust  in  the 
mind  of  the  reader  before  asking  him  to  accept  my 
solution.  Perhaps  nothing  could  be  better  adapted 
to  increase  his  confidence  than  the  Catalogue  of  the 
Ships.  For  here  is  a  distinct  episode,  which,  on  our 
presumption,  ought  to  be  contained  either  in  300 
lines  or  in  some  multiple  of  it,  with  a  pause  after 
each  third   hundred.     Well,  the  Catalogue  of  the 


BOOK  FIRST  TO  BOOK  EIGHTH       5 

Ships,  from  ea-irere  vvv  juloi  M.ovaai  in  verse  484  down 
to  fJidXa  S^  wKa  Si€7rpr](r(rov  TreSloio  in  verse  7^5>  J^^k^^s 
302  lines.  There  is  very  little  doubt  that  one  of 
these  verses  is  spurious.  It  is  the  famous  verse  558, 
in  which  Ajax  is  said  to  have  stationed  his  ships 
where  Athenian  columns  stood.  For  not  only  was 
there  a  strong  tradition  in  antiquity  that  it  was 
imported  into  the  Catalogue  by  Solon,  or  else  by 
Peisistratus,  to  serve  a  special  end,  but  it  contra- 
dicts other  parts  of  the  poem  itself.  The  ships  of 
Ajax  are  at  one  extremity  of  the  Greek  camp,  as 
appears  from  XI  5-9,  and  next  to  them  are  not 
the  columns  of  the  Athenians,  but  the  ships  of 
Protesilaus,  as  we  learn  from  XIII  681.  Another 
harsh  verse,  which  had  better  be  gone,  I  regard  as 
equally  clear.  It  is  741,  which  interrupts  the  con- 
struction of  the  sentence  in  which  it  occurs,  and 
hence  is  called  by  Dr.  Leaf  "  a  very  clumsy  line  as 
the  text  stands."  It  ascribes  the  parentage  of 
Peirithous  to  Zeus;  and  Peirithous  is  a  Lapith. 
Remove  these  two  verses,  and  you  will  have  the 
Catalogue  in  substance  as  it  came  from  the  mouth 
of  its  composer.     This  is  Canto  IV. 

Now  if  the  reader  will  turn  back  to  the  first  line 
of  the  Catalogue,  he  will  see  that  it  is  preceded  by 
a  group  of  six  similes,  one  after  the  other,  in  verses 
455-483.  That  these  similes  should  come  after  the 
Catalogue,  and  not  before  it,  is  as  nearly  as  possible 
proved  by  the  single  word  ip-xpniei/wv  in  verse  457, 


6         COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

which  takes  up  epj(oiuLevcov  in  the  last  line  of  the 
Catalogue,  and  forms  the  transition  to  Canto  V. 
How  they  have  been  displaced  is  easily  explained. 
In  some  of  our  manuscripts  the  Catalogue  is  omitted, 
only  the  appeal  to  the  Muses  in  verses  484-493 
being  retained  ;  while  in  most  of  the  others  it  is  given 
a  new  title  apart  from  that  appeal,  which  means  that 
it  was  often  omitted  in  reading.  But  if  the  Catalogue 
is  dropped,  then  the  similes,  which  describe  the 
appearance,  the  noise,  the  number,  and  the  regula- 
tion of  the  host,  must  either  be  dropped  as  well,  or 
else  be  removed  from  their  original  place  at  the 
close  of  the  Catalogue,  and  be  placed  before  the 
appeal  to  the  Muses,  so  as  to  be  readable  when  the 
Catalogue  was  left  out.  This  was  the  object  of  that 
transposition.  But  transpose  them  back  to  their  old 
place  at  the  end  of  the  Greek  Catalogue,  and  they 
are  wonderfully  apt.  For  after  the  series  of  similes 
we  turn  to  the  Trojan  scout  Polites,  or  rather  Iris, 
who  has  just  assumed  his  form,  and  the  first  thing 
on  which  his  words  lay  stress  is  the  great  magnitude 
of  the  Greek  host,  which  has  been  so  profusely 
depicted  in  the  previous  similes.  He  uses  the  very 
same  comparison  of  it  to  leaves  on  the  trees,  which 
occurs  among  the  similes  themselves,  and  the  whole 
proceeds  in  perfect  harmony.  And  it  is  surely 
natural  that  these  noble  verses  should  come  as  a 
sort  of  relief,  after  the  hearer's  attention  has  been 
a  little  fatigued  by  the  long  enumeration,  instead  of 


BOOK   FIRST  TO   BOOK   EIGHTH       7 

coming  before  it,  when  his  interest  is  still  fresh. 
Well,  if  the  reader  will  transfer  the  29  verses  to 
their  proper  place,  and  subjoin  the  next  30  verses, 
which  are  necessary  to  bring  the  two  hosts  together, 
but  leave  out  the  Trojan  Catalogue  from  Tpwa-l  jnev 
^ye/uLoveve  in  verse  816  to  the  end  of  the  book,  he 
will  have  303  lines  to  the  close  of  the  Teichoscopia 
at  Book  III  244,  where  there  is  an  obvious  pause 
in  the  action. 

I  need  not  waste  many  words  in  attacking  the 
Trojan  Catalogue,  because  I  suppose  that  but  few 
would  be  found  to  defend  it.  Compared  with  the 
Catalogue  of  the  Ships,  which  gives  us  every  kind  of 
original  information  about  the  Greek  chiefs,  it  is 
a  jejune  and  lifeless  production,  very  largely  com- 
piled from  other  parts  of  the  poem,  and  sometimes 
very  carelessly  compiled.  For  instance,  at  verse  862 
Ascanius  is  said  to  be  leading  the  Phrygians  into 
battle;  but  we  know  from  XIII  794  that  Ascanius 
had  not  as  yet  arrived  at  Troy.  And  an  opposite 
mistake  is  committed  about  Asteropaeus,  an  im- 
portant leader  of  the  Paeonians,  who  is  left  out 
because  it  is  stated  at  XXI  156  that  he  had  only 
been  ten  days  at  Troy ;  but  the  ten  days  will  easily 
include  the  day  supposed  in  the  Catalogue.  Hence 
we  hear  of  a  line  by  some  put  in  to  supply  the 
omission  of  this  important  person.  Then  in  verse 
848  the  Paeonians  are  described  as  emphatically 
bowmen,  which  agrees  indeed  with  the  Doloneia  at 


8         COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

X  428,  but  disagrees  with  XXI  155,  where  they 
are  emphatically  spearmen,  and  with  XVI  287, 
where  they  are  horsemen  in  accord  with  the  last. 
Then  both  the  Leleges  and  Caucones  are  left  out  of 
the  list  of  Trojan  allies,  though  the  former  are 
alluded  to  at  XX  96  and  XXI  86,  and  the  latter 
at  XX  329.  Then  in  verse  841  the  Larissa  to 
which  Hippothous  belongs  is  evidently  meant  to 
be  the  town  in  the  Troad ;  whereas  in  XVII  301  it 
is  far  away  from  Troy.  Then  Nastes,  or  it  may  be 
Amphimachus,  and  Ennomus  are  said  in  verses  875 
and  861  to  have  been  slain  by  Achilles  in  the  river; 
but  none  of  them  are  mentioned  in  Book  XXI,  though 
the  first  two  are  leaders  of  the  Carians ;  and  the  last 
is  here  said  to  be  a  leader  of  the  Mysians  with 
Chromis,  though  in  XIV  512  their  leader  is  Hyrtius. 
And  in  verse  827  it  is  said  that  Apollo  himself  gave 
Pandarus  his  bow,  which  recalls  a  phrase  about 
Teucer  in  XV  441 ;  but  there  is  a  long  passage  in 
IV  105-111,  which  describes  how  Pandarus  got  the 
bow  by  shooting  a  wild  goat  and  fashioning  the 
weapon  from  its  horns  with  his  own  hands.  Finally, 
the  true  Trojan  Catalogue  comes  in  Book  XII  88-107, 
where  the  Trojans  and  their  allies  assault  the  Wall 
in  five  companies  under  fifteen  chiefs;  but  here 
they  cut  so  poor  a  figure  after  the  copious  Catalogue 
of  the  Greeks,  that  there  could  be  very  little  credit 
in  defeating  them,  and  no  good  artist  would  have 
made  the  disparity  of  force  so  evident. 


BOOK  FIRST  TO   BOOK   EIGHTH       9 

The  conclusion  of  the  canto,  then,  I  place  at  the 
end  of  the  Teichoscopia ;  and  this  canto,  together 
with  the  canto  of  the  Catalogue,  introduces  us  to 
the  Greek  host  and  its  prominent  leaders,  which 
explains  the  reason  why  the  poet  connects  them 
together  rather  more  closely  than  usual.  But  now 
we  have  to  ask  whether  three  verses  can  be  excised, 
in  order  to  reduce  the  number  303  to  300.  And 
the  answer  is  that  there  are  just  three  verses  which 
can  be  so  treated,  and  no  more.     The  first  is  III  14, 

€p-)(OfjL€V(i)v  '  jLMxAa  B"  <j)Ka  SuTrp'qcra-ov  ircSioto, 

which  is  a  repetition  of  the  last  line  of  the  Catalogue, 
and  which  we  have  already  seen  to  be  there  per- 
fectly in  place,  the  word  ep^o/uLei/oov  being  taken  up 
by  ep-^^ojULevcav  m  the  following  simile ;  and  it  is  most 
unlikely  that  the  poet  would  repeat  it  after  so  short 
an  interval  and  in  a  pointless  manner  here.  The 
sentence  ends  much  better  without  it.  The  next  is 
III  144,  where  the  names  of  Helen's  handmaidens 
are  given  as  Aethra,  daughter  of  Pittheus,  and  ox- 
eyed  Clymene.  A  very  sober  critic,  the  late  Mr. 
Monro,  says,  "  This  story,  however,  like  most 
legends  of  Theseus,  is  unknown  to  Homer,  and 
accordingly  there  seem  to  be  only  two  possible  ex- 
planations of  the  present  passage.  Either  it  is  an 
interpolation,  as  Aristarchus  thought,  inserted  in 
order  to  introduce  a  reference  to  the  later  story  of 
Aethra :  or  (what  seems  more  probable)  the  names 


lo       COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

AWpr]  and  KXvjuLevr}  are  brought  in  here  merely  to 
give  an  air  of  reality  to  the  narrative,  and  the  coin- 
cidence of  name  with  the  Aethra  of  Attic  tradition  is  a 
mere  accident."  But  surely  the  view  of  Aristarchus 
is  far  the  more  probable ;  for  there  is  a  double  coin- 
cidence, in  the  name  of  Aethra  and  in  the  name  of 
Aethra's  father,  which  can  hardly  be  the  mere  effect 
of  accident.  The  line  is  an  Attic  interpolation. 
Away  then  with  Aethra,  daughter  of  Pittheus,  and 
with  ox-eyed  Clymene,  and  let  Helen  go  forth  with 
a  pair  of  handmaids  whose  names  are  not  recorded, 
as  Penelope  does  in  Odyss.  I  331,  and  ought  to  do  in 
Odyss.  XVIII  207.     The  third  verse  is  III  224, 

ov  Tore  y  58'  'OSvarjos  ayao"(ra^e^'  ciSos  ISovres, 

which  in  its  present  position  can  hardly  be  con- 
strued. Mr.  Monro  says,  "  The  line,  however,  is 
generally  thought  to  be  spurious.  It  makes  a  weak 
and  awkward  conclusion  to  the  speech ;  and  the 
neglect  of  the  digamma  in  two  words  (fef^o?  and 
FiSovTcg)  confirms  this  view."  The  true  ending  of 
the  speech  is  with  the  verse  above, 

ovK  av  €7r€LT*  'OSva-rjt  y  €pL(T(r€i€  /Sporh^  aXA.os, 

and  the  false  one  may  be  a  sort  of  alternative  to  it ; 
but  to  keep  the  two  alternatives  in  the  text  makes  a 
laughable  effect.  We  have  now  produced  300  lines, 
all  of  which  are  perfectly  coherent,  by  transposing 
the   similes    to  their  original    place,   removing   the 


BOOK  FIRST  TO  BOOK  EIGHTH     ii 

feeble  Trojan  Catalogue,  and  excising  three  most 
suspicious  verses ;  and  I  feel  pretty  sure  that  there 
is  not  another  verse  in  the  whole  of  this  passage 
which  affords  just  ground  for  suspicion. 

The  next  canto,  which  relates  the  ritual  of  the 
Oaths  and  the  Single  Combat  of  Menelaus  and  Paris, 
I  terminate  at  Book  IV  85.  This  is  the  moment 
when  Athene  enters  the  Trojan  host,  in  order  to 
persuade  Pandarus  to  take  a  shot  at  Menelaus ;  and 
here  begins  the  Rupture  of  the  Truce.  The  poet 
marks  the  termination  of  the  canto  by  giving  us  the 
thoughts  of  the  Greeks  and  Trojans  as  they  behold 
the  goddess  darting  from  the  sky,  ending  up  with 

after  which  we  turn  to  the  action  of  Athene.  Well, 
from  the  end  of  the  Teichoscopia  to  that  point  is  302 
lines.  Now  this  is  a  singularly  flawless  stretch,  in 
which  critics  of  the  most  disruptive  tendencies  find 
practically  nothing  to  touch.  But  there  are  two 
verses  on  which  the  keen  eye  of  Aristarchus  fastened 
as  improper  to  their  present  context.  Hera  says  to 
Zeus,  "  I  have  three  cities,  Argos  and  Sparta  and 
Mycenae,  which  are  far  the  dearest  to  me.  Sack 
them,  whenever  they  displease  you  ;  I  do  not  grudge 
it  or  defend  them.  But  neither  ought  you  to 
frustrate  my  labour  for  the  destruction  of  Troy." 
This  is  all  quite  coherent.  But  now,  between  the 
offer  and  the  counterclaim,  some  unlucky  hand  has 


12       COMPOSITION  OF  THE   ILIAD 

stuffed  the  two  verses  IV  55-56,  "For  if  I  do 
grudge  it  and  refuse  to  let  you  sack  them,  I  do  no 
good  by  grudging,  for  you  are  far  the  stronger." 
This,  says  Aristarchus,  destroys  the  whole  grace 
of  Hera's  offer,  if  Zeus  can  have  what  he  likes  with- 
out asking  her  leave.  I  think  that  most  readers 
will  acknowledge  the  truth  of  Aristarchus'  remark, 
although  Dr.  Leaf  considers  it  insufficient  ground  for 
condemning  the  lines.  But  it  is  not  the  best  way  of 
making  a  bargain,  to  admit  that  your  goods  can  be 
had  without  payment ;  and  Hera  is  the  last  person 
likely  to  think  so.  The  verses  are  enclosed  in 
brackets  in  the  Teubner  text  of  Dr.  Hentze,  who 
seems  to  feel  the  force  of  Aristarchus'  objection  ; 
and  perhaps  they  will  be  conceded  us  in  establishing 
a  presumptive  case.  This  set  of  300  lines  is 
Canto  VI. 

In  the  next  canto  the  truce  is  broken,  and  Aga- 
memnon marshals  his  host  for  battle.  The  pause  I 
place  after  IV  402,  where  Diomede,  being  chidden 
by  the  monarch  for  his  sloth,  is  abashed  by  the 
rebuke  and  receives  it  in  silence :  a  silence  which 
marks  the  precise  end  of  the  episode  known  as 
Agamemnon's  Patrol.  If  the  Iliad  were  a  drama, 
the  direction  at  the  verse  should  be  this :  "  Aga- 
memnon departs."  But  before  he  gets  clear  off 
the  scene,  not  Diomede  himself,  but  Sthenelus  his 
squire  has  a  fling  at  him  ;  and  then  follows  Diomede's 
reply,  not,  however,  addressed  to  Agamemnon  him- 


BOOK   FIRST   TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     13 

self,  who  by  this  time  is  evidently  gone  (for  he  is 
spoken  of  in  the  third  person  at  verse  413),  but 
administering  a  sharp  rebuke  to  the  saucy  rejoinder 
of  Sthenelus.  So  we  pass  on  to  the  Prowess  of 
Diomede,  which  is  the  principal  subject  of  the  next 
four  cantos ;  and  an  artful  transition  it  is. 

I  dwell  on  this  particular  break,  because  the 
reader  might  perhaps  expect  the  pause  to  be  placed 
20  lines  lower  down,  where  the  hosts  advance 
to  battle.  But  I  am  confident  that  the  poet 
meant  the  cantos  to  be  divided  as  is  shown  above. 
For  the  very  sound  of  the  line, 

aiSecr^cts  fSaa-tXrjos  eviTrrjv  alSotoio, 

marks  it  out  as  one  on  which  the  voice  should  dwell ; 
and  a  fresh  reciter,  or  pair  of  fresh  reciters,  might 
well  come  on  with  Sthenelus  and  Diomede,  with 
perhaps  yet  a  third  for  the  narrative.  And  here  I 
will  interpose  some  general  remarks  on  the  nature 
of  the  tercentenary  pause.  I  do  not  maintain  that 
the  strongest  pauses  in  the  poem  are  always  to  be 
found  after  each  300  lines ;  for  it  is  quite  as  much 
the  poet's  object  to  prevent  his  narrative  falling 
asunder  as  to  mark  its  several  divisions.  This  is 
patent  from  the  way  in  which  he  interweaves  his 
incidents  from  one  of  the  cantos  to  another.  Thus 
in  Canto  V  the  heralds  were  sent  to  fetch  Priam 
out  of  Troy ;  then  came  the  Teichoscopia ;  and 
then,  with  the  opening  of  Canto  VI,  we  returned  to 


14       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

the  heralds  again.  And  so  the  poet  often  throws 
a  separate  stage  of  a  previous  incident  into  the 
subsequent  canto,  and  after  going  on  for  another 
lo  or  20  or  30  lines  or  more,  breaks  off  with  the 
phrase,  "  so  they  were  doing  so  and  so,"  and  intro- 
duces there  the  new  matter  of  the  canto.  Again  it 
is  evident  that  he  sometimes  means  that  two  or 
three  cantos  should  be  taken  together,  the  whole 
forming  a  section  of  600  or  900  lines,  with  sub- 
ordinate pauses  after  each  300  verses.  We  shall 
find  good  examples  of  this  in  the  Slaying  of  Hector 
and  the  Funeral  Games  of  Patroclus,  which  form 
distinct  episodes  of  600  and  900  verses  apiece,  with 
a  secondary  pause  after  each  300  lines.  Hence  the 
turns  in  the  action  at  the  beginning  and  end  of 
each  canto  are  not  always  more  distinctly  marked 
than  some  which  arise  within  it.  And  if  the 
reader  reflects,  he  will  see  that  this  is  necessarily 
the  case.  For  the  great  changes  in  an  action  like 
that  of  the  Iliad  must  occur  when  it  passes  from 
day  to  night  or  from  night  to  day,  and  from  earth 
to  heaven  or  from  heaven  to  earth.  But  it  would 
be  hard  if,  whenever  the  poet  carries  us  from  night 
to  day  or  from  earth  to  heaven,  he  were  always 
obliged  to  open  a  new  canto.  Consequently  some 
of  the  greater  changes  must  occur  within  the 
triacosiad.  What  I  contend  for  is  that  there  is 
always  a  noticeable  pause  or  turn  in  the  action  after 
every  genuine  set  of  300  lines,  counted  from  the 


BOOK   FIRST  TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     15 

opening  of  the  poem,  but  not  necessarily  an  abrupt 
pause  or  a  violent  turn.  It  would  not  do,  however, 
for  the  tercentenary  pause  to  descend  in  the  middle 
of  a  speech. 

To  return  now  to  Canto  VII,  the  Rupture  of 
the  Truce  and  Agamemnon's  Patrol.  These  make 
up  317  lines.  But  the  17  verses  which  may  be 
removed  are  marked  out  as  if  with  a  blue  pencil. 
They  are  IV  382-398,  in  the  rebuke  of  Agamemnon 
to  Diomede,  where  the  story  is  told  of  Tydeus' 
adventures  at  Thebes.  "Why  are  you  shirking 
and  staring  about,  son  of  Tydeus  ? "  asks  the  king. 
"  It  was  not  the  way  of  Tydeus  to  shirk  like  this, 
but  to  fight  with  his  enemies  far  in  advance  of 
all  his  friends,  as  they  said  who  saw  him  at  work. 
I  never  met  him  or  saw  him  myself;  but  they  say 
that  he  was  beyond  compare.  He  came  to  Mycenae 
as  a  peaceful  visitant,  along  with  godlike  Polyneices, 
to  collect  a  host.  They  were  then  about  to  march 
against  the  sacred  walls  of  Thebes,  and  earnestly 
entreated  our  people  to  give  them  allies ;  and  they 
consented,  but  Zeus  changed  their  minds,  by  dis- 
playing unlucky  signs.  Such  was  Tydeus  the 
Aetolian  ;  but  he  begot  his  son  worse  than  him- 
self at  fighting,  though  better  at  talking."  You 
see  what  is  the  point  of  Agamemnon's  rebuke. 
Tydeus  was  a  mighty  man  of  arms,  who  was  fond  of 
fighting  himself,  and  who  came  to  Mycenae  to  get 
others  to  join  him  ;  but  all  his  eloquence  collapsed 


1 6       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

after  the  unlucky  signs  of  Zeus.  Diomede  is  just 
the  opposite.  He  is  a  very  good  talker,  for  he  con- 
stantly speaks  out  in  the  council  when  all  the  rest  sit 
silent,  and  here  he  is  supposed  to  be  chattering  away 
with  Sthenelus.  But  he  is  a  very  poor  fighter,  says 
the  king,  for  he  is  standing  still  while  others  are 
advancing  to  the  war.  Now  this  point  is  obscured, 
if  not  completely  lost,  when  an  untimely  tale  of  17 
lines  about  Tydeus*  adventures  at  Thebes  is  inter- 
posed between  the  failure  of  his  oratory  at  Mycenae 
and  the  determined  loquacity  of  his  son.  We  have 
forgotten  one  member  of  the  contrast  before  we 
reach  the  other.  Besides,  the  genuine  story  of 
Tydeus'  famous  exploit  is  told  by  Athene  in  Book 
V  800-813.  Tydeus  was  sent  as  an  emissary  to 
Thebes  by  his  companions  in  arms,  and  there  he 
boldly  challenged  the  Cadmean  youth  to  feats  of 
strength,  and  beat  them  every  one.  But  our  story- 
teller, not  content  with  this,  adds  that  the  Cadmeans 
were  so  enraged  at  it,  that  they  laid  an  ambush  for 
him  as  he  was  going  away,  and  that  he  slew  them 
all  but  one ;  which  is  a  fiction  in  itself  exceedingly 
improbable.  Then  there  is  a  very  barbarous  use  of 
the  word  ^elvos  in  verse  387,  of  which  Dr.  Leaf  says 
that  it  "  must  here  mean  *  a  stranger,'  z.e,  virtually 
under  the  circumstances  an  enemy,  whereas  in  377 
it  means  a  friend.  But  the  word  never  acquired  in 
Greek  the  connotation  of  the  Latin  koslis,  and  in 
ordinary  cases  to  be    a    ^eivog  in   any  sense   was  a 


BOOK   FIRST  TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     17 

reason  for  expecting  friendly  treatment,  not  trea- 
chery." And  the  three  names  Ai/jLovlSr]^  and 
AvT6(f)ovo9  and  UoXiKpouTijg  for  the  leaders  of  the 
Cadmean  ambush  are  so  manifestly  made  up  for 
the  occasion,  that  we  may  take  it  to  be  an  expansion 
of  the  story  told  later  on,  but  thrust  in  here,  where 
it  delays  the  action  too  long.  And  the  neatness 
with  which  the  17  lines  go  out  is  a  good  argument 
that  they  ought  to  be  banished. 

The  next  canto,  which  embraces  the  first  encounter 
of  the  armies  and  the  first  part  of  the  Prowess  of 
Diomede,  I  terminate  at  Book  V  165,  where  we 
are  first  introduced  to  Aeneas,  who  is  a  very  great 
man  in  Homer.  This  makes  307  lines.  Here  I 
admit  that  it  may  not  be  quite  so  evident  which  7 
verses  ought  to  be  removed ;  but  the  way  in  which 
I  would  do  it  is  this.  If  the  reader  will  compare 
V  40-42  and  V  56-58,  which  describe  the  deaths 
of  Odius  and  Scamandrius  respectively,  he  will  see 
that  these  triads  are  very  similar  to  one  another. 
This  similarity,  occurring  at  such  close  quarters,  has 
occasioned  much  offence ;  and  in  some  good  recent 
texts  it  has  been  mitigated  by  enclosing  in  brackets 
the  last  verse  of  the  first  triad  and  the  middle  verse 
of  the  second  triad.  And  yet  it  is  only  the  middle 
verses  of  each  triad  that  are  identical, 

and  one  of  these  alone  would  I  strike  out,  giving 

B 


1 8       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

the  preference  to  the  one  that  comes  first,  and 
supposing  the  other  one  to  be  a  careless  repetition 
of  it,  like  that  of  III  14  pointed  out  above,  caused 
by  the  general  likeness.  As  for  the  remaining  6 
verses,  I  would  seek  them  in  IV  446-451,  which 
are  repeated  word  for  word  in  VIII  60-65.  They 
would  do  equally  well  in  either  place,  because  in 
both  they  describe  the  first  encounters  of  the  hosts 
on  different  days ;  but  it  is  not  likely  that  the  same 
striking  verses  occurred  twice  over.  Probably  they 
were  inserted  for  use  when  Book  IV  was  read  apart 
from  Book  VIII,  or  was  sold  apart  for  instruction 
in  schools.  But  here  the  interval  of  the  meeting 
of  the  hosts  is  bridged  by  a  very  fine  simile  of  two 
torrents  plunging  into  the  junction  of  two  ravines, 
which  has  no  counterpart  in  the  other  book,  and  in 
which  the  word  /uLia-yoimevajv  seems  to  repel  the  fact 
that  the  battle  is  already  joined.  In  one  minute 
respect  I  confess  that  it  might  be  preferable  to  remove 
them  from  the  other  context,  the  phrase  TroXvs 
S^  opvimaySog  opwpei  being  repeated  at  VIII  59  and 
6 2  ;  and  the  reader  may  be  able  to  discover  6  other 
verses  which  can  equally  well  be  excised.  But  we 
shall  find  it  convenient  to  retain  the  lines  later  on ; 
and  it  is  safer  to  strike  out  repeated  verses  than 
others  which  have  no  good  ground  of  objection 
against  them.     This,  then,  is  Canto  VIII. 

Canto  IX,  which  contains  the  second  part  of  the 
Prowess  of  Diomede,  and  includes  his  combat  with 


BOOK   FIRST  TO  BOOK  EIGHTH     19 

Aeneas,  his  wounding  of  Aphrodite,  and  his  vain 
attack  upon  Apollo,  extends  down  to  verse  470, 
where  Ares  at  Apollo's  bidding  infuses  fresh  life 
into  the  beaten  Trojans.  The  next  canto  first 
introduces  us  to  Sarpedon,  who  is  another  great 
man  in  Homer.  The  former  one  contains  305 
lines.  Here  I  hold  it  to  be  quite  clear  which  5 
verses  can  and  ought  to  be  expelled.  They  are 
449-453,  in  which  Apollo,  who  has  saved  Aeneas 
by  wrapping  him  in  a  cloud  and  transporting  him 
to  his  temple  in  Troy,  is  represented  as  creating  a 
phantom  of  him,  over  which  the  Greeks  and  Trojans 
struggle.  The  last  two  of  these  verses  are  borrowed 
from  XII  425-426,  the  interpolator's  invention 
having  sunk  exhausted  after  its  creation  of  the 
phantom.  But  at  verse  514  Aeneas  returns  to  his 
comrades,  restored  to  health  and  strength  by  Leto 
and  Artemis,  so  that  there  must  be  a  moment 
when  the  real  man  and  the  phantom  are  together 
in  the  field.  Now  we  should  expect  to  hear  some- 
thing of  this  strange  duplication,  or  else  to  have 
already  heard  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  phantom,  as 
we  do  in  the  Helen  of  Euripides.  But  not  a  word 
is  said  of  either ;  and  though  heroes  are  repeatedly 
rapt  away  in  Homer,  nothing  like  the  substitution 
of  a  phantom  ever  occurs  again.  "  Apparently,"  as 
Dr.  Leaf  says,  "  some  rhapsodist  thought  it  necessary 
to  explain  why  the  disappearance  of  Aeneas  did  not 
stop  the  fight,"  and  therefore  added  these  five  verses. 


20       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

There  remains,  of  course,  the  undoubted  marvel  of  the 
real  Aeneas  returning  to  the  field  miraculously  cured. 
But  then  the  poet  carefully  explains  that  his  com- 
rades did  not  question  him  at  all,  because  the  stress 
of  battle  was  too  strong ;  which,  whether  an  adequate 
apology  or  not,  shows  that  he  was  alive  to  the  true 
part  of  the  wonder,  but  knew  nothing  of  the  false 
addition  of  the  phantom,  whose  way  of  dissolving  he 
never  explains. 

In  the  next  canto  the  Trojans,  rallied  by  Ares, 
advance  under  Sarpedon  and  Hector  and  the  restored 
Aeneas,  while  Diomede  gradually  retires.  It  goes 
down  to  verse  777,  at  which  moment  Hera  and 
Athene  arrive  at  Troy,  bent  upon  driving  Ares  off 
the  field.  There  is  an  excellent  pause  at  the  end  of 
the  canto,  where  the  goddesses  halt  their  steeds  at 
the  conflux  of  the  rivers  Scamander  and  Simois,  and 
Simois  supplies  them  with  ambrosia  on  which  to 
browse,  while  the  goddesses  proceed  into  the  fray. 
The  pause  is  well  marked  in  the  Oxford  Homer  of 
the  late  Provost  of  Oriel  and  in  the  Cambridge 
Homer  of  Mr.  Piatt,  who  both  begin  a  new  para- 
graph here ;  but  not  so  well  in  the  Teubner  text  of 
Dr.  Hentze,  or  in  the  last  edition  of  Dr.  Leaf,  who 
both  go  on  without  indentation.  The  canto  contains 
307  lines.  Here  again  it  may  be  a  little  doubtful 
which  seven  verses  can  be  challenged ;  but  I  should 
pitch  upon  the  genealogy  of  Crethon  and  Orsilochus, 
sons  of  Diodes,  in  verses  543-549.     There  is  little 


BOOK  FIRST  TO   BOOK  EIGHTH     21 

to  be  said  against  the  verses,  except  that  a  pedigree 
is  in  its  own  nature  suspicious,  and  that  this  one 
seems  to  have  been  drawn  up  from  Odyss.  Ill  488- 
490,  where  Alpheus  is  the  great-grandfather  as 
here,  and  the  grandfather  Ortilochus,  as  also  in 
Odyss.  XV  187  and  XXI  16,  but  here  Orsilochus, 
being  changed  to  suit  the  name  of  the  grandson, 
who  is  not  referred  to  in  the  Odyssey.  And  the 
circumstance  that  the  father  Diodes  was  a  wealthy 
man  may  be  taken  from  the  fact  that  Telemachus 
twice  lodges  in  his  house,  and  receives  a  present  on 
both  occasions.  Then  the  place  of  their  home  is 
here  called  Phere,  but  elsewhere  it  is  Pherae,  both  in 
Iliad  and  in  Odyssey.  And  again  the  young  men 
are  said  to  be  "  well  skilled  in  all  manner  of  fight- 
ing," though  it  appears  from  what  follows  that  this 
is  their  first  campaign.  These  verses,  then,  I  should 
discard ;  and  this  is  Canto  X. 

And  now,  for  reasons  which  are  reserved  to  a  later 
stage,  we  take  a  wider  sweep,  and  place  the  close  of 
the  next  canto  after  Book  VI  236.  It  comprises  the 
wounding  and  departure  of  Ares,  and  the  Colloquy 
of  Glaucus  and  Diomede,  ending  with  their  exchange 
of  armour  and  the  celebrated  verse, 

Xpvcrea  ;(aA,K€i(uv,  eKarofijSot'  ivveajSolcov. 

There  is  a  manifest  transition  in  the  story  here ;  for 
with  this  incident  the  poet  disposes  of  Diomede  for 
the  rest  of  the  day,  and  with  the  first  verse  of  the 


22       COMPOSITION   OF  THE  ILIAD 

next  canto  Hector  reaches  the  Scaean  gates  of  Troy. 
Then  follows  his  intercourse  with  Hecuba,  with 
Paris,  with  Helen,  and  lastly  with  Andromache, 
after  which  he  rejoins  the  Trojans  in  the  field  at  the 
seventh  verse  of  the  Seventh  Book.  This  is  one  of 
the  most  perfect  expanses  of  poetry  in  the  whole 
Iliad,  of  which  so  subversive  a  critic  as  Dr.  Leaf  says, 
"With  the  exception  of  one  point,  to  which  we 
shall  return,  all  that  follows  is  so  perfect  in  narration 
as  well  as  in  conception  as  to  call  for  no  criticism ; 
admiration  is  enough.*'  I  omit  that  one  point,  as 
I  think  that  there  is  but  little  in  it,  and  leave  the 
reader  to  seek  it  in  Dr.  LeaPs  Introduction  to  the 
book.  Well,  from  the  moment  when  Hector  enters 
the  Scaean  gates  until  the  moment  when  he  rejoins  the 
Trojans  in  the  field,  there  are  exactly  300  lines. 
This  is  Canto  XII. 

Let  us  return  to  Canto  XI,  and  fix  our  attention  on 
the  Colloquy  of  Glaucus  and  Diomede.  Both  ancient 
and  modern  scholars  have  found  much  to  question 
here.  It  has  often  been  objected  to  the  colloquy 
that  it  is  far  too  long  for  its  present  position.  The 
whole  battle  seems  to  stand  still,  while  Diomede 
retails  to  Glaucus  the  story  of  Lycurgus  in  twelve 
lines,  and  Glaucus  responds  with  the  story  of 
Bellerophon  and  his  family  in  fifty-six.  Now  the 
entire  canto  consists  of  368  verses.  Cut  out  the 
account  of  Lycurgus  from  the  speech  of  Diomede, 
cut  out   the   history  of  Bellerophon  from  that   of 


BOOK   FIRST   TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     23 

Glaucus,  and  you  have  exactly  300  lines.  This  is 
surely  remarkable ;  for  both  the  cuts  can  be  made 
with  perfect  ease.  "And  who  are  you.''"  asks 
Diomede  of  Glaucus ;  "  for  I  have  never  seen  you 
in  the  battle  before ;  but  now  you  have  advanced  far 
in  front  of  the  rest,  through  your  own  high  spirit, 
mine  being  the  spear  that  you  have  ventured  to 
withstand.  But  unhappy  are  the  parents  whose 
children  encounter  my  might.  If  you  are  one 
of  the  immortals,  who  has  come  down  from  Olympus, 
I  would  not  fight  with  the  heavenly  gods.  But 
if  you  are  one  of  the  mortal  men  who  consume 
the  fruits  of  the  field,  draw  near,  that  you  may  the 
speedier  reach  the  end  of  death."  Between  the  two 
conditional  sentences  has  been  inserted  the  story  of 
Lycurgus.  "  For  neither  was  Lycurgus  so  long- 
lived,  who  strove  with  the  heavenly  gods,"  and  so  on 
for  twelve  lines.  The  insertion  is  so  clearly  marked  by 
the  virtual  repetition  of  verse  129  at  verse  141,  that 
I  refrain  from  dwelling  on  objections  of  detail,  such 
as  a  legend  of  Dionysus  in  Homer.  Take  again  the 
tale  of  Bellerophon.  "  Proud  son  of  Tydeus,"  replies 
Glaucus,  "  why  do  you  inquire  after  my  race  ?  Such 
as  is  the  race  of  leaves,  such  also  is  that  of  men.  Of 
the  leaves,  some  are  poured  to  the  ground  by  the 
wind,  while  others  are  produced  by  the  flourishing 
wood,  and  come  on  in  the  season  of  spring ;  so  of 
the  generations  of  men,  while  one  is  producing, 
another  is  leaving  oflF.     But  Hippolochus  was  sire 


24       COMPOSITION   OF   THE   ILIAD 

unto  me,  and  from  him  I  say  that  I  am  sprung. 
And  he  sent  me  to  Troy,  and  charged  me  again  and 
again,  always  to  be  the  best  fighter  and  to  excel  all 
others,  and  not  to  disgrace  the  family  of  my  fathers, 
who  proved  themselves  to  be  far  the  best  both  in 
Ephyre  and  in  the  broad  land  of  Lycia.  Such  is  the 
lineage  and  blood  of  which  I  boast  that  I  come." 
Quite  short,  quite  appropriate,  and  noble  beyond 
words.  But  now,  between  the  likeness  of  the  rising 
generation  to  the  growth  of  leaves  and  the  naming 
of  Hippolochus,  come  the  words,  "  But  if  indeed  you 
desire  to  find  out  about  this  also,  that  you  may 
perfectly  understand  our  lineage,  and  many  men 
know  of  it ;  there  is  a  city  Ephyre,"  and  so  on  with 
the  genealogy  of  Sisyphus,  Glaucus,  and  Bellerophon  ; 
the  account  of  Bellerophon,  Proetus,  and  Anteia ;  and 
the  three  children  of  Bellerophon,  who  are  Isander, 
Hippolochus,  and  Laodamia.  The  selfsame  words 
are  used  to  introduce  the  long  genealogy  of  Aeneas 
in  Book  XX  213-240,  which  is  removed  with  equal 
ease,  leaving  300  behind.  And  the  story  of  Bel- 
lerophon, though  perfect  in  itself,  is  a  fairy  tale 
quite  foreign  to  the  Iliad.  The  reader  will  observe, 
however,  that  in  the  second  speech  of  Diomede 
there  is  a  notice  of  Bellerophon,  whereas  we  have 
cut  out  the  mention  of  him  here.  But  this  seems 
perfectly  natural.  The  naming  of  Hippolochus  and 
Ephyre  and  Lycia  by  Glaucus  gives  the  cue  to 
Diomede,    who   takes   their    ancestry   a   generation 


BOOK   FIRST  TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     25 

higher  up,  at  which  point  there  was  some  connection 
of  friendship  between  his  own  grandfather  Oeneus  and 
Bellerophon,  the  grandsire  of  Glaucus.  He  assumes 
that  Oeneus'  name  is  known  to  Glaucus,  though 
nothing  has  been  said  of  him  before,  not  even  in  the 
verses  we  omit ;  and  so  we  may  suppose  that  he 
knows  about  Bellerophon,  without  Glaucus  having 
to  tell  it.  The  reader  will  likewise  observe  that  in 
cutting  out  this  story  we  cut  out  the  mention  of  the 
crrnxaTa  Xvypd  in  verse  1 68,  and  with  them  the  sole 
indication  that  Homer's  audience  was  familiar  with 
any  form  of  writing. 

We  now  go  on  to  Canto  XIII,  which  is  con- 
cerned with  the  Duel  of  Hector  and  Ajax,  this  day's 
warfare  ending,  as  it  began,  with  a  single  combat. 
The  pause  we  set  at  VII  344,  after  the  short  pouncil 
in  Agamemnon's  tent,  to  which  Ajax  is  conducted 
in  triumph.  The  next  canto  begins  with  the  Trojan 
assembly  on  the  citadel  of  Troy.  This  makes  337 
lines,  which  seems  a  mighty  number.  Yes,  but  there 
is  a  speech  of  Nestor  in  it,  and  Nestor's  speeches 
will  often  yield  an  easily  detachable  story.  And 
here  there  is  a  passage  of  a  regular  type,  introduced 
by  a  regular  formula,  "  O  would  to  father  Zeus  and 
Athene  and  Apollo,  that  I  were  as  young  as  when 
such  and  such  an  event  took  place."  We  shall 
learn  that  passages  of  this  sort  always  go  out  with 
the  utmost  facility  wherever  they  occur.  Here  it  is 
the  story  of  Ereuthalion,  and  a  most  untimely  tale 


26       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

it  is ;  for  Hector  has  issued  his  challenge,  and  it  is 
all  important  that  there  should  be  no  delay  in 
taking  it  up.  The  first  8  lines  of  Nestor's  speech 
exhort  the  rest  rightly  to  promptitude,  but  when 
he  himself  goes  on  for  another  29,  the  effect  is 
wholly  spoilt.  And  the  internal  difficulties  of  the 
story  are  great.  Here  is  a  note  of  Dr.  Leaf's: 
"  133.  This  passage  cannot  be  reconciled  with 
geographical  facts,  ^eid  is  no  doubt  the  same  as 
^eal  in  Elis ;  but  that  was  a  maritime  town,  not  near 
Arkadia ;  there  is  nothing  known  of  a  Keladon  or 
lardanos  anywhere  near  it,  nor,  it  would  seem,  are 
there  any  rivers  that  could  correspond."  The  things 
denied  in  the  note  are  all  asserted  or  implied  in  the 
text.  And  here  is  another :  "  149.  It  is  clear  that 
if  the  now  aged  Nestor  took  the  armour  in  question 
in  his  early  youth  (153)  from  the  man  who  had  it 
from  Lykoergos  in  his  old  age,  the  Are'lthoos  from 
whom  Lykoergos  took  it  cannot  by  any  reasonable 
chronology  have  left  a  son  young  enough  to  be 
fighting  in  the  tenth  year  of  the  siege  of  Troy :  yet 
in  line  10  this  would  seem  to  be  implied.  Moreover, 
Areifthoos  of  line  8  lived  in  Arne  in  Boeotia,  whereas 
Areithoos  here  seems  to  be  an  Arkadian."  So  that 
the  story  twice  seems  to  contradict  an  earlier  passage 
in  the  same  book.  Dr.  Leaf  continues  :  "  But  diffi- 
culties of  this  sort  are  familiar  in  the  tales  of  Nestor's 
youthful  exploits,  all  of  which  bear  the  mark  of  late 
work,  introduced  with  no  special  applicability  to  the 


BOOK  FIRST  TO   BOOK  EIGHTH     27 

context,  but  rather  with  the  intention  of  glorifying 
the  ancestor  of  Peisistratos."  So  that  the  passage  is 
one  of  a  difficult  class ;  and  every  one  of  them  will 
on  our  principle  be  found  to  disappear.  The  proper 
end  of  Nestor's  speech  is  at  verse  131  ;  and  the  29 
verses  132-160  ought  to  be  removed.  This  leaves 
us  with  8  verses  over  the  300.  It  is  strange,  but 
true,  that  exactly  8  verses  in  the  speech  of  Nestor 
at  the  end  of  the  canto  are  devoted  to  the  project  of 
Building  the  Wall. 

Students  of  the  Homeric  problem  will  at  once 
perceive  the  bearing  of  this  fact.  It  is  well  known 
that  inconsistency  about  the  Wall  is  one  of  the  great 
engines  of  the  disruptive  critics  of  the  Iliad.  They 
infer  from  it  that  the  Wall  never  formed  part  of  the 
original  scheme  of  the  poem,  and  they  use  its  pre- 
sence or  absence  as  a  rough  sort  of  test  in  attempting 
to  determine  the  primitive  plan,  which  is  sometimes 
called  the  Menis,  though  that  title  truly  belongs  to 
a  series  of  incidents  in  the  First  Book  of  the  Iliad. 
Now  I  see  not  the  slightest  reason  for  doubting  that 
the  existence  of  the  Wall  was  an  integral  portion  of 
the  earliest  poet's  plot.  From  the  Twelfth  Book 
onward  you  simply  cannot  detach  it  from  the  poem 
without  resorting  to  processes  which  are  a  confu- 
tation of  the  theory  on  which  you  proceed.  For  it 
is  entwined  with  things  that  lie  at  the  inmost  heart 
of  the  story ;  and  therefore  it  is  not  surprising  that 
nobody  has  yet  offered  to  the  public  a  satisfactory 


28       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

scheme  which  excludes  the  Wall.  But  I  see  now, 
and  always  have  seen,  the  very  gravest  reason  for 
supposing  that  the  Building  of  the  Wall  never  stood 
as  an  incident  in  the  Iliad  of  Homer ;  and  here  I 
believe  that  the  whole  inconsistency  lies.  Homeric 
critics  sometimes  overlook  the  fact,  that  when  an 
inconsistency  between  two  things  occurs,  it  is  not 
essential  to  do  away  with  each,  but  only  with  one. 
The  existence  of  the  Wall  I  hold  to  be  genuine  and 
consistent  with  the  rest  of  the  Iliad;  the  Building 
of  the  Wall  I  hold  to  be  false  and  inconsistent. 

The  whole  story  of  the  Building  of  the  Wall  is 
contained  in  these  8  verses  336-343,  where  Nestor 
proposes  the  measure,  and  in  the  32  or  34  verses  of 
the  next  canto,  which  begin  at  verse  433,  where  the 
project  itself  is  put  into  execution;  after  which 
Poseidon  and  Zeus  have  a  short  talk  about  it.  Now 
the  proposal  to  build  a  wall,  whenever  it  occurred,  is 
obviously  the  proposal  of  a  most  important  step. 
And  yet  it  is  first  broached  as  a  sort  of  happy 
thought  at  the  end  of  Nestor*s  speech,  after  his 
most  timely  suggestion  that  Agamemnon  should 
make  a  truce  with  the  Trojans,  in  order  to  cremate 
the  dead  ;  and  not  one  of  the  elders  has  a  word  to  say 
about  it,  but  all  assent  straight  off.  Can  we  not 
imagine  what  opportunities  for  debate  and  display 
of  his  characters  the  real  Homer  would  have  found 
in  such  a  scene.'*  How  Diomede  would  arise  and 
bluntly  declare  that  the  arms  of  the  Greeks  were 


BOOK   FIRST  TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     29 

adequate  to  the  defence  of  the  camp,  and  remon- 
strate against  yet  another  day's  interruption  of  the 
fighting  ?  How  Odysseus  would  get  up  and  assert 
that  Diomede  was  valiant  in  spirit  but  young  in 
years ;  that  he  would  have  said  the  same  himself  in 
his  earlier  days,  but  that  his  valour  had  been  tem- 
pered by  experience  ?  How,  after  further  debate, 
Nestor  would  rise  to  reinforce  his  original  proposal, 
and  Agamemnon  would  close  the  conference  by 
saying  that  he  had  given  just  the  right  advice  as 
usual  ?  Nothing  of  the  sort.  Then  if  we  turn  to 
Book  XII  1-33,  which  everyone  must  take  to  be 
the  first  formal  introduction  of  the  Wall,  at  a  most 
convenient  time,  when  the  Trojans  have  reached  it 
in  their  victorious  advance,  it  is  manifestly  implied 
that  the  Wall  was  built  long  ago  to  protect  the  ships 
and  booty,  and  not  two  days  before.  And  surely  the 
nature  of  the  case  declares  that  such  a  measure,  were 
it  undertaken  at  all,  would  suggest  itself  and  be 
carried  out  shortly  after  the  formation  of  the  camp 
upon  the  Hellespont.  For  it  has  often  been  observed 
what  an  odd  moment  is  this  for  building  a  wall,  about 
the  end  of  the  ninth  year,  and  after  a  day  of  fight- 
ing in  which  the  Greeks  have  got  the  better. 

Then  if  we  sift  the  proposal  of  Nestor  more 
closely,  it  occasions  three  great  difficulties.  He 
advises  that  after  collecting  and  burning  the  dead, 
under  an  armistice  with  the  Trojans,  they  should 
raise  over  the  pyre  a  common  tomb,  and  build  the 


30       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

wall  on  to  it  or  against  it.  But  in  the  first  place 
this  flatly  contradicts  his  proposal  two  lines  higher 
up,  that  the  bones  of  the  dead  should  be  preserved 
and  taken  home,  which  was  the  original  poet's  idea. 
Then,  again,  the  tomb,  which  must  be  meant  to 
serve  as  a  bank  of  earth  behind  the  wall,  must  itself 
be  a  most  important  part  of  the  fortification.  But 
when  the  Trojans  have  won  the  Wall  at  the  end  of 
Book  XII,  and  we  should  expect  so  conspicuous  a 
feature  of  the  defence  to  come  into  sharper  promin- 
ence, it  is  not  once  alluded  to.  At  the  second 
assault  of  the  Trojans,  in  Book  XV  355-364,  Apollo 
levels  the  banks  of  the  trench  outside  the  Wall,  and 
he  smashes  down  the  Wall  itself  like  a  castle  of  sand, 
but  of  the  tomb  behind  it  not  a  word  is  said.  And 
in  the  final  obliteration  of  the  Wall  by  Poseidon  and 
Apollo,  which  is  given  by  anticipation  at  the  begin- 
ning of  Book  XII,  not  a  syllable  is  said  about  the 
tomb.  But  a  greater  difficulty  still  is  want  of  time. 
As  a  result  both  of  the  Greek  council  and  of  the 
Trojan  assembly,  held  on  the  same  night  after  the 
first  day  of  battle,  the  two  parties  early  next  morning 
agree  to  suspend  hostilities  for  so  long  a  time  as  is 
necessary  to  burn  the  dead.  This  is  all  completed 
on  the  evening  of  that  day.  Well,  in  the  early 
twilight  before  the  dawning,  up  get  the  Greeks  and 
set  about  building  their  wall.  This  work  occupies 
all  the  rest  of  the  day,  and  is  finished  at  sunset. 
But  this  was  not  in  the  bond.     They  were  to  have 


BOOK   FIRST   TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     31 

so  much  time  as  was  necessary  to  burn  the  dead,  and 
no  more.  And  are  we  to  suppose  that  the  Trojans 
sit  idle  throughout  the  whole  of  this  second  day, 
while  their  enemies,  contrary  to  the  agreement,  carry 
out  in  peace  this  defensive  operation  ?  Then  it  seems 
very  doubtful  whether  "  a  chosen  people  of  the 
Greeks,"  as  they  are  called,  could  accomplish  in  a 
single  day  a  work  of  fortification  so  vast  as  that 
which  is  implied  in  Book  XII  1-33.  It  is  true  that  in 
Book  VIII  178  Hector  describes  the  wall  as  weak  and 
negligible.  But  we  shall  find  fair  reason  to  suppose 
that  passage  spurious;  and  because  of  those  words 
I  should  judge  that  it  was  put  in  by  the  same  man 
who  put  in  the  Building  of  the  Wall,  or  else  by 
somebody  who  saw  that  the  work  of  a  single  day 
could  only  be  a  puny  affair,  and  was  betrayed  by 
the  spurious  incident  into  disagreement  with  other 
parts  of  the  poem.  But  there  is  little  doubt  that 
this  second  day  has  been  foisted  into  the  poem ;  for 
the  poet  does  not  mark  the  fall  of  the  preceding 
night,  as  his  manner  is  elsewhere,  and  so  we  can 
pass  straight  on  to  the  marketing  and  nightfall  with 
which  the  book  concludes. 

We  therefore  strike  out  the  8  verses  in  which 
Nester  proposes  to  build  the  wall,  and  all  is  clear  in 
Canto  XIII.  But  in  the  next  canto,  before  we  come 
to  the  building  itself,  there  are  two  isolated  verses 
which  must  certainly  depart.  The  first  is  verse  353, 
which    cannot    be    construed,    was    stigmatised    by 


32       COMPOSITION  OF  THE   ILIAD 

Aristarchus,  and  is  bracketed  or  otherwise  got  rid 
of  in  all  recent  texts.  It  is  a  lame  attempt  to  help 
out  the  meaning  of  the  phrase  rw  ou  w  n  KcpSiop 
riiMv  in  the  verse  above.  The  other  is  verse  380, 
which  says  that  the  Trojans  took  their  supper  in 
regiments  on  the  field,  whereas  they  have  left  the 
field  and  returned  to  Troy  for  the  assembly  on  the 
citadel.  The  verse  is  omitted  from  many  manu- 
scripts, it  is  borrowed  from  XVIII  298,  where  it  is  in 
place,  and  it  is  bracketed  in  all  recent  texts.  Now  the 
beginning  of  the  interpolation  about  the  wall  is  quite 
clear  at  verse  433 ;  but  it  is  a  very  nice  question 
where  we  should  put  the  end.  It  might  seem 
simple  to  place  it  after  the  two  verses  465-466, 
which  close  the  previous  incident, 

hvcrero  S'  •j^eA.tos,  rerkXicno  Se  'ipyov  *Axat(3v, 
I3ov<j>6veov  Se  Kara  kXlct las  koI  Sopirov  'dXovTO. 

But  we  may  notice  that  these  verses  will  equally  well 
close  the  incident  of  the  funeral,  which  terminates 
now  at  verse  432,  just  before  the  interpolation 
begins.  The  word  cpyov  will  apply  to  the  funeral 
pile  just  as  well  as  to  the  wall,  and  we  shall  preserve 
the  explicit  mention  of  the  nightfall,  although  the 
same  thing  is  implied  by  irawvyj.oi  lower  down. 
And  the  interpolation  will  equally  well  conclude 
with  the  verse  before, 

ws  ot  jLtev  TOtavTa  Trphs  aXX-qXavs  dyopcvov, 

which  relates  to  the  duologue  of  Poseidon  and  Zeus. 


BOOK   FIRST   TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     33 

I  am  persuaded  that  this  is  right  for  several  reasons. 
Firstly,  if  we  cut  out  the  two  verses,  we  curtail 
the  mention  of  the  Greek  supper  on  the  night  of 
the  funeral.  But  this  is  to  be  a  night  of  revelry, 
and  it  is  natural  that  the  poet,  who  is  careful  to 
explain  how  the  Greeks  got  their  wine,  should 
explain  how  they  came  by  abundance  of  meat ; 
which  is  done  by  the  word  ^ovcpoveov.  They  made 
a  wholesale  slaughter  of  oxen.  But  again  this  word 
is  said  to  have  a  ceremonial  sense,  which  chimes  very 
well  with  the  rest  of  the  funeral  incident ;  for  after 
that  pious  labour  comes  the  religious  funeral  feast. 
And  for  the  same  reason  it  could  scarcely  have 
occurred  to  the  interpolator.  For  he,  obedient  to  the 
hint  which  is  given  him  in  XII  6,  makes  it  one  of 
the  grievances  of  Poseidon  in  his  duologue  with 
Zeus,  that  the  Greeks  did  not  offer  hecatombs  of 
oxen  after  building  the  wall.  So  that  the  verses 
evidently  came  at  the  end  of  the  funeral,  where  they 
are  highly  appropriate,  but  were  used  by  the  inter- 
polator to  conclude  his  account  of  the  Building  of 
the  Wall,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  the  word 
povcpoveov  contradicts  what  he  told  us  16  lines  above. 
We  therefore  retain  these  verses  and  reject  the  rest, 
together  with  the  2  spurious  ones  above,  and  this 
leaves  us  104  lines  to  the  end  of  the  book,  with 
which  to  find  the  tercentenary  pause  in  the  next. 

Now  it  is  clear  that,  wherever  else  a  pause  may 
occur,  one  must  be  placed  at  the  end  of  the  Eighth 

c 


34       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD  ^ 

Book.  For  here  the  poet  winds  up  his  description  of 
the  panic  flight  of  the  Greeks,  and  of  the  Trojan 
bivouac  on  the  plain,  with  the  magnificent  simile 
which  compares  their  watch-fires  to  the  aspect  of 
the  starry  heavens ;  while  the  next  book  begins 
with  the  consternation  of  the  Greeks  which  brings 
about  the  Deputation  to  Achilles.  We  shall  find  that 
with  this  Eighth  Book  concludes  the  15th  Canto  of 
the  poem,  which  has  45  in  all.  So  that  one  third 
of  the  Iliad  begins  with  the  Wrath  of  Achilles, 
and  ends  with  the  first  defeat  of  the  Greeks;  and 
the  next  third  begins  with  the  Embassy  which 
vainly  endeavours  to  appease  his  wrath,  and  ends 
with  the  Death  of  Patroclus  at  the  close  of  Book  XVI, 
which  is  of  course  another  most  important  moment 
in  the  poem ;  while  the  last  third  is  devoted  to 
the  consequences  of  that  momentous  event,  and 
especially  to  the  vengeance  of  Achilles.  This  whole 
arrangement  is  so  likely  in  itself,  that  it  affords 
no  small  confirmation  of  our  view.  And  I  mention 
it  here  in  hope  to  fortify  the  reader's  belief;  for 
we  are  now  on  the  brink  of  a  somewhat  anxious 
situation. 

Well,  if  we  look  back  about  300  lines  from  the 
end  of  Book  VIII,  we  shall  discover  a  very  convenient 
pause  after  verse  252.  This  is  the  one  moment 
when  the  Greeks,  who  in  the  previous  canto  have 
been  stricken  with  a  supernatural  terror  by  Zeus, 
suddenly   regain    new    courage  owing  to  an  omen 


BOOK   FIRST  TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     35 

which  he  sends  to  them  in  merciful  response  to 
Agamemnon*s  prayer.  The  chiefs  repass  the  trench, 
with  Diomede  at  their  head,  but  the  proper  hero 
of  the  ensuing  verses  is  Teucer.  The  exact  number 
of  lines  to  the  end  of  the  book  is  313.  How  can 
we  excise  the  odd  1 3  verses  ?  There  is  no  obvious 
single  passage  of  that  extent,  such  as  a  genealogical 
story  or  a  reminiscence  of  old  Nestor,  so  that  we  are 
compelled  to  pick  and  choose.  But  I  need  not 
say  that  the  Eighth  Book  is  one  which  furnishes 
a  good  many  particular  grounds  of  complaint  to  the 
critic,  some  of  which  appear  to  be  solid  and  firm. 
The  first  verse  on  which  I  should  fix  is  277,  which 
tells  us  that  Teucer  brought  all  of  those  named 
before  to  the  ground  in  quick  succession.  It  is 
omitted  by  the  majority  of  manuscripts,  is  repeated 
at  XII  194  and  XVI  418,  is  enclosed  in  brackets  by 
Mr.  Monro  and  Dr.  Leaf  and  Dr.  Hentze,  and  is 
printed  at  the  bottom  of  the  page  by  Mr.  Piatt. 

The  next  verses  are  332-334,  in  which,  after 
Teucer  has  been  disabled,  and  Ajax  has  run  forward 
and  put  his  shield  about  him,  it  is  stated  that  two 
trusty  comrades,  Mecisteus,  son  of  Echius,  and  high- 
born Alastor,  carried  him  to  the  ships  heavily  groan- 
ing. The  same  three  verses  are  repeated  word  for 
word  in  XIII  421-423;  but  there  it  appears  that 
Mecisteus  and  Alastor  are  the  comrades  of  Anti- 
lochus,  or  else  of  the  wounded  Hypsenor,  over 
whom  Antilochus  throws  his  shield,  as  Ajax  throws 


36       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

his  over  Teucer  here.  Now  the  verses  cannot  be 
right  in  both  places ;  but  it  is  a  question  in  which 
place  they  originally  stood.  Dr  Leaf  holds  that 
they  are  original  here ;  for  he  thinks  that  Hypsenor 
is  killed  outright,  and  therefore  cannot  be  carried  to 
the  ships  heavily  groaning.  But  with  all  deference 
to  so  great  an  authority,  I  take  the  contrary  view. 
For  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  Hypsenor  is  killed 
outright,  though  he  is  desperately  wounded,  being 
struck  upon  the  liver  below  the  diaphragm,  which 
accounts  for  his  heavily  groaning ;  and  the  boast  of 
Deiphobus,  that  he  has  sent  Hypsenor  to  keep  com- 
pany with  Asius  on  the  way  to  Hades,  shows  that 
he  is  conscious  of  having  dealt  a  mortal  wound,  but 
not  that  Hypsenor  is  slain  outright.  And  why 
should  Antilochus  so  rashly  drop  his  shield  about  him, 
if  it  is  so  very  plain  that  he  is  killed  upon  the  spot  ? 
But  nothing  worse  happens  to  Teucer  than  the 
numbing  of  his  hand  by  the  blow  of  a  stone ;  which 
by  depriving  the  part  of  feeling  releases  it  from  pain, 
and  would  not  be  so  good  a  cause  for  heavy  groans. 
Then  again,  nothing  further  is  said  about  Mecisteus 
and  Alastor  in  this  place  ;  but  the  story  of  Mecisteus 
is  followed  up  in  Book  XV,  which  is  a  later  stage  of 
the  same  battle  as  that  in  which  he  rescues  Hypsenor, 
he  being  slain  with  his  father  Echius  at  verse  339. 
The  same  device  is  used  in  the  case  of  Ascanius 
and  Morys,  sons  of  Hippotion.  They  are  first 
introduced   to   us   at  XIII  792,  and  then  Morys 


BOOK  FIRST  TO  BOOK  EIGHTH     37 

and  his  father  Hippotion  are  slain  at  XIV  514.  So 
that  the  one  instance  supports  the  other,  and  all  hangs 
together,  showing  that  Mecisteus  and  Alastor  be- 
long to  that  place.  Then  if  we  cut  out  the  verses 
in  Book  XIII,  the  incident  ends  very  lamely.  For 
there  the  fight  is  at  close  quarters,  and  Antilochus  is 
left  standing  with  his  shield  over  Hypsenor,  and  not 
a  word  further  is  said.  But  here  the  opponents  are 
at  a  long  distance  from  each  other,  as  is  shown  by  the 
use  of  arrows  and  stones ;  so  that  Ajax  might  well 
be  understood  to  remain  a  little  while  exposed,  when 
his  shield  is  over  Teucer,  until  Teucer  recovers  and 
retires.  Besides  all  which,  a  great  deal  has  been 
made  of  the  shield  of  Ajax  in  the  preceding  verses, 
Teucer  coming  out  from  under  it  to  shoot,  and  then 
retreating  under  it  again  when  he  has  taken  his  shot ; 
so  that  it  forms  a  very  fair  conclusion  to  the  incident 
to  say  that  Ajax  carries  forward  his  shield  to  the 
wounded  Teucer,  instead  of  Teucer,  as  before,  re- 
treating under  the  shield  of  Ajax.  These  three 
verses,  then,  I  should  detach. 

The  next  verses  are  466-468,  in  which  Hera 
declares  that  she  will  hold  aloof  from  the  battle  at 
the  command  of  Zeus,  but  that  she  will  suggest 
some  beneficial  advice  to  the  minds  of  the  Greeks, 
that  they  may  not  all  of  them  perish.  The  same  thing 
has  been  said  in  the  same  words  by  Athene  at  the 
beginning  of  the  book,  in  verses  35-37,  where  it  is 
more  appropriate ;  for  there  the  battle  is  just  about 


38       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

to  begin,  but  here  it  is  nearly  over  for  the  day, 
night  falling  in  the  next  paragraph.  The  three  verses 
are  omitted  from  many  manuscripts,  and  are  marked 
as  superfluous  in  all  the  texts  aforesaid. 

And  now  we  come  to  a  peculiar  case.  The  four 
verses  548  and  550-552  do  not  occur  in  any  of  our 
manuscripts,  but  they  are  quoted  in  connection  with 
verse  549  in  the  Platonic  dialogue  Alcibiades  II, 
whence  they  were  inserted  in  the  text  by  Joshua 
Barnes.  It  is  said  in  the  dialogue  that  you  will 
find  them  in  Homer,  when  the  Trojans  are  making 
a  night-watch ;  but  Dr.  Leaf  affirms  that  they  have 
no  claim  whatever  to  be  in  the  text.  But  I  must 
avow  that  I  should  be  most  sorry  to  part  with 
them ;  for  they  are  remarkably  apt  to  their  present 
context.  They  describe  the  Trojan  offering  of 
hecatombs  to  the  gods,  which  is  just  what  we 
should  expect  after  their  marvellous  victory  in  this 
book.  And  if  we  leave  them  out,  the  word  Kvlarr]  in 
the  genuine  verse  549  must  refer  to  the  fumes  of 
their  roasted  sheep  and  oxen,  but  of  the  roasting 
itself  there  is  nothing  said  at  all ;  whereas  it  almost 
always  means  the  sweet  savour  of  a  sacrifice,  and 
this  meaning  the  mention  of  their  hecatombs  in  the 
verse  above  immediately  provides.  Then  I  do  not 
well  see  how  to  account  for  the  explicit  statement  of 
the  author  of  the  dialogue,  and  for  his  connection  of 
verse  549  with  the  rest.  People  do  not  in  our  time 
write  things  that  can  be  convicted  of  falsehood  by 


BOOK   FIRST   TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     39 

turning  the  leaves  of  a  Bible ;  nor  in  ancient  times 
did  they  write  things  that  could  be  proved  untrue 
by  turning  the  pages  of  Homer.     Dr.  Leaf  thinks 
that  he  did   not  mean  what  he  says,  but  that  the 
passage  may  come  from  some  other  "  Homeric  "  or 
Cyclic  poem  than  the  Iliad.     But  surely  the  chances 
are  very  numerous  against  both  a   Trojan  bivouac 
and  verse  549  being  found  together  in  some  other 
poem  as  well  as  in  the  Iliad.     What  curious  things 
the  Cyclic  poems  must  have  been,  if  they  went  on 
at  this  rate ;   for  they  must  have  copied  the  Iliad 
almost   line    for  line.     Mr.   Monro  seems   to  have 
thought  that  the  verses  might  be  genuine,  when  in 
editing  the  Iliad  he    spoke  of  them  as  being  pre- 
served  in  the   dialogue ;    though   in   his  edition   of 
the  Odyssey,  p.  428,  he  calls  the  last  three  clearly 
spurious.     But  we  cannot  reject  these  three  without 
rejecting  also  verse  548,  which  has  no  better  warrant, 
and    then    the   difficulty   about   kvio-i]   confronts    us 
again.     And  the  words  ovpavov  eia-w  in  the  genuine 
verse  seem  meant  to  prepare  us  for  the  three  which 
follow,  and  which  tell  us  that  the  gods  refused  to 
partake   of  the    savour   of  the    hecatomb,    because 
sacred  Troy  had  become  to  them  most  hateful ;  a 
statement  which    is   puzzling   to   Mr.    Monro,   but 
which  is  explained  by  the  tyrannous  edict  of  Zeus 
on  her  behalf,  at  the  opening  of  the  book,  when  he 
insultingly  forbids  all  the  gods  to  take  part  either 
for  or  against.     Now  if  there  is  no  sacrifice,  but 


40       COMPOSITION   OF   THE   ILIAD 

only  the  regular  evening  meal,  nor  any  mention  of 
the  gods,  but  all  is  concerned  with  men  on  earth, 
there  is  much  less  point  in  saying  that  the  fumes  of 
their  feast  were  carried  up  by  the  winds  "  into 
heaven,"  than  if  we  were  to  hear  in  the  very  next 
lines  how  the  gods  in  their  disgust  would  have  none 
of  it.  Hence  there  is  something  to  be  said  for 
the  verses  after  all.  And  may  it  not  be  possible  that 
these  four  verses  were  supplanted  when  another  four 
crept  in  ?  For  there  are  four  highly  suspicious 
verses  at  the  end  of  the  last  paragraph,  538-541, 
introduced  by  the  trailing  tautologous  phrase,  i^eXlov 
avi6vT09  eV  avpiov,  itself  an  odd  expression,  which 
prompted  the  conjecture  of  ovpavov  to  Nauck ;  and 
going  on  with  two  verses,  one  of  which  is  identical 
with  XIII  827,  and  ending  up  with 

which  again  is  identical  with  XIII  828,  and  is  there 
in  place,  but  here  quite  out  of  it.  For  if  aupiov  is 
right,  ^/uLeprj  ijSe  must  mean  to-morrow,  which  usage 
forbids.  And  if  avpiov  is  wrong,  yet  the  phrase 
with  ovpavov  comes  to  the  same,  and  vi^Gpri  ijSe  still 
makes  a  jar;  for  this  day's  fighting  is  now  at  an 
end,  and  Hector  does  not  mean  to  renew  the  attack 
until  the  morrow.  I  therefore  submit  it  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  reader,  which  set  of  4  verses  ought  to  go. 
The  one  set  is  not  in  the  manuscripts,  but  the  verses 
are  quoted  as  occurring  here  or  hereabouts,  where 


BOOK   FIRST   TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     41 

they  are  certainly  appropriate,  if  not  indispensable. 
The  other  set  is  in  the  manuscripts,  but  the  verses 
are  almost  the  same  as  XIII  825-828,  where  they 
are  as  easy  as  possible,  but  here  make  a  puzzling 
opposition  to  the  context.  Whichever  set  we  reject, 
we  shall  have  disposed  of  11  of  our  13  verses  by 
arguments  which  seem  to  have  no  little  force. 

The  last  two  verses,  I  regret  to  say,  come  out  of 
the  famous  simile  at  the  end  of  the  book ;  but  the 
case  is  too  strong  against  them  to  allow  of  their 
being  left  in.  They  are  557-558,  which  describe 
the  illumination  of  the  peaks  and  promontories  and 
glens  by  the  moon,  and  the  breaking  open  of  the 
sky.  They  were  omitted  by  Zenodotus,  and 
obelized  by  both  Aristarchus  and  Aristophanes,  as 
a  wrong  repetition  of  XVI  299-300.  Dr.  Leaf 
says,  "  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  judgment 
is  right,  fine  though  the  verses  are  in  themselves ; 
the  repetition  of  alOrjp  is  awkward,  and  the  strong 
phrase  vireppayri  is  far  more  appropriate  in  the  later 
passage,  where  the  clouds  are  represented  as  being 
actually  *  burst  open '  by  a  gust  of  wind,  than  here 
where  the  air  is  still.  So  also  the  aorist  €(j)avev 
implies  a  sudden  glimpse  through  the  clouds. 
Here,  too,  the  peaks  and  points  are  less  in  place  than 
where  the  mountain  to  which  they  belong  has  been 
already  mentioned."  And  we  may  add  that  it 
would  be  strange  if  the  poet,  who  has  given  the 
verses  a  substantive  footing  of  their  own  in  XVI 


42       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

299-300,  where,  in  Dr.  Leafs  words,  "  the  sudden 
gleam  of  new  hope  is  magnificently  compared  to  a 
sudden  burst  of  light  through  clouds  hanging  over 
a  mountain  peak,  as  though  a  cleft  were  opened 
into  the  very  depths  of  heaven,"  if  the  poet,  I  say, 
had  employed  them  merely  to  fill  out  a  simile  of  quite 
another  kind.  No  doubt  their  beauty  led  to  their 
insertion  here  for  use  apart  from  Book  XVI.  But 
I  must  not  disguise  a  slight  difficulty  which  occurs 
on  cutting  out  the  lines.  The  word  aa-rpa  in  verse 
559  comes  a  little  too  close  to  the  same  word  in 
verse  555  to  be  wholly  pleasant  to  the  ear.  But 
the  reader  best  may  judge  if  this  awkward  eifFect 
does  not  vanish,  or  at  least  become  more  faint, 
when  an  emphasis  is  laid  upon  the  epithets  of  the 
word  in  either  sentence,  on  apiirpeiria  in  the  first  and 
on  iravra  in  the  second.  You  see  that  the  poet  first 
adverts  to  the  brightness  of  each  particular  star,  and 
then  insists  on  the  appearance  of  the  stars  shining 
all  together,  which  makes  the  shepherd  glad.  And 
this  notion  is  borne  out  in  the  case  of  either 
sentence  by  the  distinction  of  (palverai  from  e^Serai : 
nor  is  there  any  other  reason  for  telling  us  twice 
over  that  the  stars  are  visible.  Then  the  repetition 
of  aarrpa,  instead  of  being  superfluous,  serves  to 
show  us  where  the  emphasis  should  lie,  which  is 
hardest  upon  Trai/ra,  and  throws  the  contrast  of  its 
epithets  into  stronger  relief.  And  this  supplies  a 
further  argument  against  the  two  intrusive  verses, 


BOOK   FIRST  TO  BOOK   EIGHTH    43 

which  interfere  with  the  contrast,  and  which  by 
their  very  different  movement  seem  to  me  to  deaden 
the  lovely  choral  rhythm  of  the  rest ;  though  in 
other  respects  it  is  a  pity  that  the  passage,  which  has 
been  endeared  to  English  readers  by  the  skilful 
translations  of  Tennyson  and  Worsley,  cannot  be 
left  to  stand  in  its  present  form.  So  much  for 
Canto  XV. 

We  have  now  to  go  back  and  be  certain  about 
Canto  XIV.  We  carried  over  104  verses  from  the 
Seventh  Book,  and  we  placed  the  pause  after  verse 
252  of  the  Eighth.  This  makes  up  356  lines,  which 
is  a  great  deal  in  excess  of  our  limit.  But  there  is 
fair  reason  for  thinking  the  whole  passage  160— 
212  not  to  be  genuine,  which  makes  53  lines;  and 
the  three  verses  224-226  are  almost  undoubtedly 
wrong.  We  will  despatch  the  latter  first.  They  are 
repeated  in  XI  7-9,  where  none  of  our  manuscripts 
omit  them,  whereas  a  very  great  number  omit  them 
here.  They  describe  the  situation  of  the  huts  of 
Ajax  and  Achilles  at  either  end  of  the  camp,  in 
both  cases  measuring  the  range  of  a  shout  from  the 
ship  of  Odysseus,  which  was  the  middlemost  of  all. 
Now  in  Book  XI  the  shout  is  uttered  by  the  goddess 
Eris,  in  the  stillness  before  the  fight,  and  of  course 
might  carry  so  far.  But  here  it  is  a  shout  of  Agamem- 
non, in  the  middle  of  a  battle,  which  is  not  so  likely 
or  so  proper ;  for  it  diminishes  our  notion  of  the  size 
of  the  camp.     The  verses  are  rejected  by  all  four 


44       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

texts  said  above.  Well,  now  we  return  to  the  other 
passage,  which  contains  a  taunt  of  Hector  as  Diomede 
withdraws,  an  exhortation  of  Hector  to  the  Trojans, 
an  address  of  Hector  to  his  horses,  and  a  short  col- 
loquy of  Hera  and  Poseidon,  ending  with  the  formal 
line 

ws  ol  fiev  roiavra  7rph<s  dWrjXovs  dyopevov, 

after  which  we  go  back  to  the  retreating  Greeks. 
Now  by  far  the  most  objectionable  part  of  the  passage 
is  Hector's  address  to  his  horses ;  and  I  confess  that 
this  could  be  cut  out  alone,  by  going  on  after  verse 
183  with  w?  €(paT  €v-)(oiuL€vog  in  verse  198,  instead  of 
w?  eiTu)v  lirTroKnu  e/ce/cXero.  But  after  this  has  been 
done,  all  the  rest  of  the  passage,  unless  perhaps  the 
first  12  lines,  must  be  taken  together  or  left  to- 
gether. For  it  is  chiefly  made  up  of  speeches,  and  it 
is  always  the  poet's  way  to  mark  the  close  of  a  speech 
with  an  expression  like  "  so  he  spake,"  or  "  so  saying," 
or  "then  somebody  answered,"  or  "while  he  thus 
pondered."  But  if  we  begin  to  break  up  the  passage, 
we  find  that  the  verses  which  contain  this  necessary 
adjunct  take  us  on  to  the  next  incident.  Hence  all 
hangs  together ;  and  then  there  are  a  number  of  ob- 
jections, singly  slight  but  strong  in  accumulation, 
against  the  entire  passage,  which  render  it  better  to 
join  it  all  on  to  Hector's  address  to  his  horses,  though 
this  is  by  far  the  most  suspicious  piece,  and  to  throw 
out  the  53  lines  together,  than  to  make  up  the 
number   required    by   culling  them    out    elsewhere. 


BOOK   FIRST   TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     45 

I  say  this,  because  it  is  well  known  that  the  first  part 
of  the  book  contains  a  large  number  of  repeated 
verses,  and  there  are  some  isolated  verses  against 
which  objections  are  brought.  But  the  repeated 
verses  are  mostly  epic  commonplace,  and  are  all  very 
apt  to  the  context ;  and  the  only  grammatical  objection 
which  seems  to  me  to  have  much  weight  is  to  the 
dual  eCearOrjv  in  verse  74,  where  the  Greek  Kvjpe^  settle 
down  in  the  scale.  For  it  is  certainly  rather  odd  that 
they  should  have  but  a  couple  of  /ciy^e?.  But  we  do 
not  know  how  the  poet  conceived  of  such  an  object, 
when  it  became  concrete  enough  to  go  into  a  balance. 
And  we  may  remember  that  in  Book  IX  41 1  Achilles 
has  Si-)(OaSia^  Knpa9,  two  alternative  fates  by  which  to 
meet  his  end  ;  so  that  a  nation,  as  well  as  a  man, 
might  be  thought  to  have  two  different  ways  of 
dying,  either  in  the  field  or  in  the  arms  of  friends 
at  home.  And  in  any  case  this  objection  lies  against 
the  word,  as  often  happens  in  all  authors,  and  not 
against  the  line ;  for  the  couplet  is  otherwise  good. 

Now  for  Hector's  address  to  his  horses.  In  the 
first  place  there  are  four  of  them ;  a  thing  absolutely 
unknown  to  Homer,  the  only  other  vestige  of  a 
four-horse  chariot  being  in  a  long  story  of  Nestor  at 
XI  699,  which  goes  out  as  we  should  expect,  and  in 
a  passage  of  the  Odyssey.  Then  their  names  are  all 
taken  from  horses  in  other  parts  of  the  Iliad  or 
Odyssey.  Then  Andromache  is  said  to  mix  them  up 
wine  to  drink,  which  is  ridiculous ;  and  if  we  reject 


46       COMPOSITION   OF   THE   ILIAD 

the  verse,  with  Aristophanes  and  Aristarchus,  the 
queer  result  is  that  she  gives  Hector  grain.  Then 
there  is  mention  of  a  shield  of  Nestor,  the  fame  of 
which  reaches  to  heaven,  and  of  a  breastplate  of 
Diomede,  which  was  wrought  by  the  labour  of 
Hephaestus.  But,  says  Dr.  Leaf,  from  whom  I 
copy  these  objections,  "  a  famous  shield  of  Nestor  is 
as  little  known  elsewhere  to  the  Iliad  as  a  divine 
breastplate  of  Diomedes";  and  this  seems  to  ignore 
the  late  exchange  of  armour  with  Glaucus.  And 
last  of  all.  Hector  expresses  a  hope  of  setting  the 
Greeks  on  shipboard  that  very  night ;  though  his 
object  in  the  present  book  rather  is  to  set  the  ships  on 
fire  and  prevent  them  getting  aboard.  This  passage 
is  undoubtedly  spurious. 

The  chief  objections  to  the  colloquy  of  Poseidon 
and  Hera  are  that  it  is  pointless  in  itself,  for  nothing 
comes  of  it,  and  that  it  hangs  together,  as  has  been 
said,  either  with  the  address  to  the  horses  or  with 
the  exhortation  just  before  it,  against  which  graver 
objections  may  be  brought.  It  much  reminds  us 
of  the  former  colloquy  of  Poseidon  and  Zeus  after 
the  Building  of  the  Wall,  and  I  should  ascribe  it  to 
the  same  hand.  Particular  objections  will  be  found 
in  Dr.  Leaf's  notes.  He  says  that  verse  199,  near 
the  beginning,  seems  a  poor  imitation  of  a  famous 
one  in  the  First  Book ;  and  that  verse  207,  near 
the  end,  is  quite  inconsistent  with  the  introduction 
to  the  book,  though  here  I  am  not  certain  that  I 


BOOK    FIRST   TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     47 

seize  his  point.  And  he  says  that  the  whole  passage 
from  184  down  to  212  "has  given  rise  to  many 
well-founded  suspicions."  But  212  is  the  very 
verse  where  our  excision  ends. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  Hector's  taunting  of  Diomede 
at  verse    160.     This  was   a   good    opportunity   to 
start  interpolation,  for  Diomede  has  said  to  Nestor 
just  above  that  he  does  not  like  to  retreat,  because 
Hector  will  brag  about  it  among  the  Trojans ;  and 
then  may  the  earth  gape  wide  for  Diomede !     But 
Nestor,  with   a   timely   compliment,  persuades  him 
to  retire,  and  off  they  go  after  the  retreating  Greeks. 
Well,  up  sure  enough  comes  Hector  at  this  moment 
and   delivers  his  taunt,  though  what  I  believe  the 
genuine  poet   meant  was  that   Hector  would   brag 
about  it  over  his  cups  in  Troy ;  and  some  strange 
expressions    he    uses.     He    begins,   "Tydeides,   the 
Greeks  honour   you   above    the   rest   with    a    chief 
seat  and  with  flesh  and  with  flowing  cups."     Quite 
untrue.     It  is  true  of  Agamemnon  and  Idomeneus, 
as  stated  by  the  former  in  IV  257-263  ;  but  then 
one  is  the  great  king,  and  the  other  is  an  elderly 
man,  rightly  treated  with  respect.     And  the   same 
thing  is  true   of  Sarpedon   and   Glaucus   in  Lycia, 
as   stated    by  the    former   at    XII    310-312,   from 
which  one  of  the  lines  is  borrowed.     Now  Hector 
might  without  much  harm  make  a  statement  that 
is  false,  meaning,  "Tydeides,  the  Greeks  think    a 
great  deal  of  you,  but  now  they  will  think  less." 


48       COMPOSITION   OF   THE   ILIAD 

But  the  particularity  of  the  falsehood  adds  nothing 
to  its  point,  but  rather  defeats  its  object,  and  it 
would  have  done  just  as  well  if  he  had  used  the 
regular  expression,  "  they  honour  you  as  a  god " ; 
whereas  it  confuses  our  idea  of  Diomede  to  have 
it  said  in  the  very  special  terms  that  are  used  to 
mark  out  a  different  class  of  man.  For  Diomede 
is  a  young  man,  whose  feelings  are  strong,  but 
who  seldom  dares  speak  out  till  late,  when  all  the 
rest  sit  silent  in  council  over  the  wine,  which  here 
is  meant.  The  others  treat  him  for  the  most  part 
to  an  admiring  surprise  on  account  of  his  youth ; 
but  the  sharp  rebuke  of  Agamemnon  shows  us 
very  well  the  bounds  of  his  esteem.  Then  Hector 
vituperates  him  as  KaKrj  yXtjvrj^  which  to  Dr.  Leaf 
implies  no  more  than  "  you  pretty  toy,"  but  which 
I  should  rather  have  supposed  to  mean  "  false  jewel," 
alluding  to  Diomede's  martial  appearance  and  un- 
military  flight.  But  the  point  cannot  well  be 
decided ;  for  among  all  the  taunts,  of  Homeric 
warriors  the  like  of  it  never  occurs  again.  Then 
Hector  threatens  him,  irapo^  tol  SaljuLova  Scoaco,  "  first 
I  will  deal  you  a  demon,"  apparently  meaning  "  a 
death  "  ;  another  strange  expression  never  used  again, 
though  it  is  musical  enough  and  might  have  been 
expected.  So  that  it  all  looks  as  if  a  later  hand  was 
active  here,  and  no  incompetent  one  either,  but  out 
of  keeping  with  the  first ;  and  both  Aristarchus  and 
Aristophanes  thought  the  same. 

\ 


BOOK   FIRST   TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     49 

Then  Diomede,  being  stung  by  the  taunt,  thrice 
meditates  to  turn  about,  and  thrice  Zeus  thunders 
from  Ida ;  which  is  an  instance  of  what  Dr.  Leaf 
calls  "a  somewhat  monotonous  interference  on  the 
part  of  Zeus "  in  this  book.  For  he  has  already- 
thundered  once  from  Ida,  and  put  the  Greeks  to 
flight,  at  verse  75,  and  has  already  thundered  and 
thrown  a  thunderbolt  before  the  horses  of  Diomede 
at  verse  133,  and  here  is  Diomede  advancing  yet 
again,  and  again  Zeus  thunders  thrice  from  Ida ; 
which  is  thrice  too  often  for  the  credit  of  his 
bolts.  But  we  are  never  told  the  result  of  Dio- 
mede's  reflections,  but  are  left  to  presume  that 
he  flies.  For  here  comes  in  Hector's  exhortation 
to  the  Trojans,  in  which  he  bids  them  not  forget 
to  bring  fire  to  burn  the  ships,  a  premature  com- 
mand, and  refers  to  the  "  contrivance  of  the  wall," 
which  he  describes  as  aPXr/xp'  ovSevoa-copa,  weak  and 
negligible ;  the  last  of  which  words  never  occurs 
again  till  Oppian,  and  is  wrongly  formed  besides. 
Now  Hector  here  again  might  employ  a  con- 
temptuous, if  false,  sort  of  phrase.  But  then  we 
must  remember  that  if  we  were  correct  in  cutting 
out  before  the  Building  of  the  Wall,  which  was  done 
on  very  strong  grounds,  this  is  the  first  mention 
of  that  structure ;  and  it  is  not  just  so  likely 
that  the  first  impression  of  it,  stamped  upon  our 
minds  by  the  poet,  would  be  one  to  contradict 
the    conception    that    he    means    to    make    use    of 

D 


50       COMPOSITION   OF   THE   ILIAD 

hereafter.  For  we  learn  from  Book  XII  19-33 
that  it  required  the  force  of  eight  rivers  discharging 
all  together  against  it  for  nine  days  on  end,  and 
Zeus  raining  continuously  to  swell  the  stream,  and 
Poseidon  working  away  with  his  trident,  to  obliterate 
its  traces,  even  after  Apollo  had  wrecked  it  utterly 
in  Book  XV.  So  that  the  Wall  is  evidently  meant 
to  be  far  from  weak  and  negligible.  But  I  believe 
that  the  first  true  mention  of  the  Wall  occurs  at 
verse  213,  the  very  verse  after  the  passage  which 
we  are  proposing  to  leave  out ;  and  that  the  man 
who  represented  it  as  built  in  a  single  day  wanted 
to  get  his  arrow  in  first,  and  implant  in  the  minds 
of  his  hearers  a  notion  not  so  repugnant  to  his 
own  composition.  This  seems  to  me  the  motive 
of  the  whole  interpolation,  except  the  address  to 
the  horses,  which  betrays  an  inferior  hand.  For 
the  man  who  built  us  the  wall  is  quite  a  re- 
spectable poet,  but  t  he  other  is  a  wretched  one, 
and  inconsistent  with  the  interpolator  into  whose 
work  he  has  foisted  his  own  interpolation.  Well, 
I  admit  that  all  these  are  rather  delicate  threads. 
But  taking  them  all  together,  and  seeing  that  the 
passage  consists  of  exactly  53  lines,  and  leaves  a 
coherent  text  when  removed,  and  that  there  is 
little  or  nothing  to  question  elsewhere,  I  am  of 
opinion  that  they  guide  us  safely  to  conclude  that 
the  verses  ought  to  go. 

But  before  we  quit  this  canto  there   is   another 


BOOK   FIRST   TO   BOOK   EIGHTH     51 

slight  objection  which  ought  to  be  met.  We  are 
so  accustomed  to  open  our  Homer  and  find  the 
Eighth  Book  beginning  with  a  new  morning  and  an 
edict  of  Zeus,  that  it  might  seem  to  the  reader  as  if 
a  separate  division  of  the  poem  ought  certainly  to 
start  at  that  point.  But  I  interpret  the  poet's  inten- 
tion in  this  way.  He  meant  the  two  cantos  to  go 
closely  together,  the  first  beginning  on  the  first 
evening  with  a  Trojan  assembly  on  the  citadel,  and 
the  second  ending  on  the  second  evening  with  a 
Trojan  assembly  on  the  plain.  The  intermediate 
verses  are  devoted  to  explaining  the  cause  of  this 
striking  alteration  in  their  favour.  The  cause  is  the 
direct  intervention  of  Zeus  and  the  panic  flight  of 
the  Greeks ;  and  the  whole  section  is  exactly  divided 
at  the  moment  when  the  Greeks  rally  for  a  little 
before  their  final  discomfiture  on  the  day.  And  you 
will  notice  that  the  poet  appears  to  insist  upon  the 
continuity  of  time  between  the  books  by  the  re- 
peated words  iravvif^^LOL  and  irawvyio^  in  Book  VII 
476  and  478,  where  he  tells  us  that  all  night  long 
the  Greeks  and  Trojans  feasted,  and  that  all  night 
long  Zeus  was  occupied  with  the  project  which 
comes  to  birth  at  break  of  day.  The  poet  therefore 
begins  the  canto  about  nightfall,  as  he  starts  about 
midnight  at  the  beginning  of  Book  II,  that  is.  Canto 
III,  where  the  first  step  in  the  design  of  Zeus  is 
taken ;  while  he  reserves  the  commencement  of  a 
new  canto  with  a  new  day  until  the  opening  of  Book 


52       COMPOSITION   OF   THE   ILIAD 

XI,  where  the  third  and  most  disastrous  step  in  the 
design  of  Zeus  begins.  But  it  would  certainly  mark 
the  continuity  of  Book  VIII  with  the  end  of  Book 
VII  a  little  better,  if  instead  of  'Hw?  imev  in  the  first 
verse  we  might  read  'Hw?  Se,  as  it  is  in  Book  XXIV 
695,  where  the  same  verse  is  repeated.  For  then  it 
joins  on  to  iravpuxio?  at  once,  and  connects  the  pre- 
vious assembly  on  earth  with  the  ensuing  assembly 
in  heaven.  However,  we  see  jmev  thus  used  at  the 
opening  of  a  new  day  in  VII  421,  where  the  con- 
tinuity is  complete.  And  the  poet  may  mean  that 
the  assembly  in  heaven,  at  the  beginning  of  Book 
VIII,  was  held  during  that  sleep  which,  at  the  end 
of  Book  VII,  he  tells  us  succeeded  the  nightlong 
feasting ;  a  slight  retrogression  which  is  better  marked 
by  jmev  than  by  a  directly  continuous  Se.  So  that  it  is 
best  to  let  all  things  stand  as  they  are. 

This  early  morning  sleep  perhaps  will  account  for 
the  shortness  of  the  battle,  which  in  the  title  of  the 
book  is  called  the  Curtal  Fight ;  for  as  to  the  other 
end,  it  continues  to  sunset  as  usual.  And  this  small 
sign  of  harmony  with  what  has  gone  before  we 
might  not  have  expected,  if  Book  VIII  was  simply 
composed,  as  some  have  averred,  to  bring  in  the 
Deputation  to  Achilles. 

And  now  we  have  finished  off  one  third  of  the 
Iliad,  except  a  portion  of  the  Second  Book,  and  find 
ourselves  in  smoother  waters  for  a  while. 


CHAPTER   II 

BOOK  THE  NINTH  TO  BOOK  THE  SIXTEENTH 

Cantos  XVI  and  XVII  coincide  with  the  Ninth 
Book ;  and  here,  as  regards  the  Greeks,  begins  the 
great  nychthemeron  or  space  of  four  and  twenty 
hours  from  sunset  to  sunset,  of  which  the  main 
divisions  are  marked  by  the  dawn  at  XI  i,  the  early 
forenoon  at  XI  86,  the  late  afternoon  at  XVI  779, 
the  twilight,  which  appears  to  be  supernaturally  pro- 
longed for  the  struggle  over  the  body  of  Patroclus, 
at  XVII  366-376  and  644-650,  and  the  nightfall 
at  XVIII  239.  The  two  cantos  with  which  it  opens 
are  occupied  with  the  Embassy  to  Achilles.  The  break 
comes  after  verse  306,  and  is  a  good  example  of 
its  use,  which  is  artistic  and  not  alone  mechanical. 
Before  the  break  comes  the  long  speech  of  Odysseus 
in  82  verses,  in  which  he  conveys  Agamemnon's 
offer  of  redress,  and  invites  Achilles  to  take  pity  on 
the  Greeks.  A  pause  ensues,  during  which  we  may 
suppose  that  his  auditor  is  collecting  his  thoughts ; 
and  then  follows  the  long  rolling  eloquence  of 
Achilles  in  122  verses.  The  break  very  much 
reminds  us  of  that  which  comes  between  the  Eighth 

and  Ninth  Books  of  the  Odyssey,  where  the  long 

53 


54       COMPOSITION   OF   THE   ILIAD 

narrative  of  Odysseus  opens  with  the  same  verse  as 
the  long  harangue  of  Achilles.  The  6  verses  which 
ought  to  be  left  out  of  the  first  canto  are  to  myself 
fairly  clear.  They  are  57-62  in  Nestor's  speech 
to  the  assembly.  One  of  them,  59,  says  Dr.  Leaf, 
"  is  generally  rejected  by  modern  critics,  after  Bekker, 
as  weakly  tautological " ;  while  the  other  five,  if  not 
so  bad,  produce  a  rambling  and  dilatory  effect ;  and 
Nestor  is  anything  but  a  rambling  old  man  in 
Homer,  though  he  has  been  made  very  like  one  by 
the  reckless  interpolation  of  his  speeches. 

He  addresses  himself  first  of  all  to  Diomede,  who 
was  the  last  to  speak,  and  he  says,  "  Son  of  Tydeus, 
you  are  distinguished  by  strength  in  war,  and  in 
council  you  have  turned  out  the  best  amid  all  of 
your  own  age ;  not  a  man  among  the  Greeks  will 
quarrel  with  that  word  of  yours,  nor  will  any  gainsay 
it ;  but  the  last  word  in  our  parley,  reached  it  have 
you  not.  To  clan,  to  law,  to  home  a  renegade  is  he, 
who  hankers  after  freezing  civil  strife."  The  last 
sentence  reproves  the  sharp  personal  attack  on  Aga- 
memnon made  by  Diomede,  which,  as  Nestor  says,  is 
not  the  best  way  of  ending  a  discussion ;  while  the 
last  but  one  before  it  approves  the  confident  word 
of  Diomede,  that  God  is  on  their  side  in  warring 
against  Troy.  This  is  all  in  perfect  keeping.  But 
before  the  last  sentence  he  is  made  to  say,  "  To  be 
sure  you  are  also  young,  and  you  might  even  be  a 
son  of  mine,  youngest  by  birth ;  but  there  is  wisdom 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     S5 

in  your  words."  Now  the  particles  of  connection 
here  do  not  truly  connect  this  with  what  is  said 
before.  Young  as  well  as  what  ^  As  well  as  wise, 
we  should  understand,  did  not  the  next  words  show 
that  this  thought  has  yet  to  be  enforced  in  opposi- 
tion to  his  youth ;  and  its  enforcement  there  repeats 
what  Nestor  said  above,  but  had  qualified  by  saying 
that  his  wisdom  has  its  limits.  The  truth  is  that 
these  particles  are  incorrectly  used,  and  their  right 
use  may  be  seen  in  II  291.  He  next  is  made  to  say, 
"  Come  then,  I,  who  claim  to  be  an  elder  man  than 
you,  will  say  my  say  and  will  pursue  it  to  the  full ; 
nor  will  any  man  underrate  my  word,  not  even  our 
ruler  Agamemnon."  We  now  expect  some  decisive 
word  from  Nestor,  which  all  will  accept,  and  which 
will  relieve  the  cruel  situation  of  the  king.  But 
what  he  proposes  is  the  posting  of  sentinels  and 
an  immediate  adjournment  to  Agamemnon's  tent. 
There  he  does  suggest  the  one  and  only  course,  to 
pacify  Achilles,  but  not  here,  and  for  a  very  good 
reason,  as  we  shall  see  later  on,  when  we  consider 
Grote's  objections  to  the  Embassy.  The  verses, 
then,  in  which  he  is  made  to  say  that  he  will  speak 
the  final  word  at  once,  are  both  out  of  place  them- 
selves and  the  cause  of  the  two  next,  which  denounce 
intestine  strife,  being  out  of  place ;  and  they  seem  to 
have  been  put  in  to  soften  an  abruptness  in  that 
denunciation,  which,  however,  has  a  very  forcible 
effect.     But  here  the  best  argument  is  to  ask  the 


Se       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

reader  first  to  peruse  those  6  verses  with  care,  and 
then  to  read  the  speech  without  them  ;  and  perhaps 
he  will  admit  that  the  ease  with  which  they  dis- 
appear, together  with  the  improvement  that  their 
disappearance  makes,  is  sufficient  warrant  to  con- 
demn them. 

But  now  the  reader  may  be  appalled  to  learn  that 
the  rest  of  the  book  contains  407  lines.  Yes,  but 
Homer  has  another  old  man  who  is  made  to  tell 
long  stories,  besides  Nestor,  and  he  is  Phoenix. 
Phoenix  was  a  native  of  Hellas,  who  came  to  Phthia, 
where  he  was  kindly  received  by  King  Peleus,  and 
appointed  tutor  to  his  infant  son  Achilles.  Such 
a  liking  did  Achilles  take  to  Phoenix,  that  he  would 
never  touch  a  bit  of  food  until  he  was  set  upon  his 
tutor's  knees,  and  received  his  sop  of  bread  and  wine 
from  his  tutor's  hand.  And  when  the  aged  Peleus 
parted  with  his  only  son  for  Agamemnon's  campaign, 
he  sent  the  venerable  Phoenix  along  with  him,  to 
instruct  his  inexperience  in  the  council  and  the  field. 
So  Nestor  with  great  sagacity  pitches  upon  this  man 
to  guide  the  two  envoys,  Ajax  and  Odysseus,  into 
the  presence  of  Achilles ;  while  the  two  heralds, 
Odius  and  Eurybates,  complete  the  train.  Well, 
the  two  envoys  advance  into  the  tent  of  Achilles, 
Odysseus  leading,  and  are  received  by  its  master 
with  every  token  of  affection  and  esteem.  The 
formal  hospitalities  are  concluded,  and  Ajax  makes 
a  sign  to  Phoenix  that  all  is  ready  to  begin,  meaning 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     57 

him  no  doubt  to  put  in  a  few  smooth  words  of 
transition  to  the  difficult  business  in  hand.  But 
Odysseus,  encouraged  by  the  warmth  of  Achilles' 
reception,  and  completely  deceived  about  the  dif- 
ference of  his  sentiments  toward  Agamemnon,  with- 
out waiting  for  Phoenix,  charges  a  cup  with  wine, 
pledges  Achilles'  health,  thanks  him  for  his  hospi- 
tality, which  he  compares  with  that  of  Agamemnon, 
and  plunges  headlong  into  his  commission.  His 
oration  is  a  total  failure.  Achilles  replies  in  words 
of  burning  indignation ;  both  the  envoys  are  silenced ; 
and  at  last  the  aged  Phoenix  speaks.  So  far  all  is 
superb.  But  now  Phoenix  speaks  on  for  172  verses, 
3 1  of  which  inform  us  how  he  seduced  his  father's 
concubine  at  his  mother's  request,  was  cursed  by  his 
father  for  doing  it,  was  resolved  to  quit  his  angry 
father's  halls,  was  kept  in  honourable  confinement 
by  his  cousins  and  his  kinsmen  camping  all  around, 
but  on  the  tenth  night  of  captivity  broke  loose  and 
escaped  out  of  Hellas ;  and  76  of  which  narrate  the 
still  more  irrelevant  story  of  Meleager.  Can  any 
man  believe  that  these  merry  tales  were  told  at  this 
solemn  moment?  Few  believe  it,  I  am  sure,  and 
therefore  I  pass  to  my  impending  point.  If  31  be 
added  to  76,  it  makes  107  ;  and  if  107  be  deducted 
from  407,  it  leaves  300.  The  speech  of  Phoenix  is 
thus  reduced  to  the  modest  dimension  of  65  verses, 
which  bears  a  very  natural  proportion  to  that  of 
Odysseus  in   82,  and  that  of  Achilles  in  122;  and 


58       COMPOSITION   OF   THE   ILIAD 

it  is  composed  of  an  affecting  account  of  the  infancy 
of  Achilles,  and  the  celebrated  allegory  of  the 
Prayers. 

Now  the  whole  question  here  is  whether  the  joints 
are  plain,  or  whether  we  have  chosen  the  points  of 
junction  solely  to  suit  our  purpose.  I  assert  that  in 
the  case  of  each  story  the  limits  of  its  interpolation 
are  as  clear  as  daylight.  The  first  insertion  lies 
between  the  words 'EXXa^a  KaXXiyvvaiKa  inverse  447, 
and  the  words  'KWaSog  evpv^opoio  in  verse  478,  with 
which  the  storyteller  conducts  us  round  to  the  exact 
spot  from  which  we  diverged.  "  I  would  not  con- 
sent to  be  left  behind  by  you,"  Phoenix  says  to 
Achilles,  who  thinks  of  going  home,  "  not  even  if 
a  god  himself  were  to  promise  to  strip  off  my  old 
age  and  make  me  young  and  fresh,  as  when  first  I 
forsook  Hellas  with  its  fair  women,  and  came  to 
fertile  Phthia,  mother  of  sheep,  even  to  King  Peleus." 
All  is  quite  coherent.  But  here  our  storyteller  has 
a  chance  of  explaining  why  Phoenix  forsook  Hellas 
with  its  fair  women,  and  came  to  fertile  Phthia ;  and 
after  that  phrase  he  adds,  "flying  from  the  abuse 
of  my  father  Amyntor,  son  of  Ormenus,  who  was 
exceedingly  angry  with  me  about  a  comely  concu- 
bine. .  .  .  Then  I  fled  away  through  Hellas  with 
its  wide  dancing  grounds,"  and  came  to  fertile  Phthia. 
It  is  a  capital  story,  but  not  the  least  in  place.  So 
with  the  other  one.  "  If  Agamemnon  did  not  proffer 
gifts  and  mention  more  to  come,  but  were  to  persist 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     59 

for  ever  in  his  harshness,  I  would  not  be  the  man  to 
urge  you  to  throw   aside  your  wrath  and  succour 
the  Greeks,  however  sore  their  need.     But  now  he 
both  offers  you  many  gifts  at  this  moment,  and  has 
promised  more  hereafter,  and  has  chosen  the  noblest 
men  in  all  the  Grecian  host,  and  the  men  who  are 
dearest  to  yourself,  and  has  sent  them  forward  to 
entreat  you.     Do  you  not  put  to  shame  their  elo- 
quence and   their  errand ;    though   hitherto   it  was 
excusable  that  you  should  be  angry.     Nay,  do  not 
conceive  any  such  design  yourself,  and  may  no  evil 
spirit  prompt  you  to  that  course.     It  will  be  harder 
to  help    us   when    the    ships   are    already   burning. 
Accept  the   gifts,   and   come.'*     This   again    is   all 
coherent.     But  after  the  verb  "be  angry"  in  verse 
523   comes  "So  also  have   we    heard    the    famous 
stories  of  the  warrior  heroes  of  old,  when  one  of 
them    was    seized   with    furious    anger,"    which    is 
manifestly  the  transition  to  the  story  of  Meleager ; 
and  the  end  is  at  kgkov  S'  f/juLvve  koi  avrco^  in  verse 
599,  because  it  is  the  last  thing  said  about  him.     So 
that  here  are  two  stories  often  thought  out  of  place, 
the  beginnings  and  ends  of  which  are  clear,  and  which 
when  taken  together  make  up  107  verses,  and  which 
when  subtracted  from  a  total  of  407  leave  exactly 
300  lines  between  two  important  pauses  in  the  poem; 
and  if  this  be  an  accident,  after  all  that  is  shown 
above,  there  is  no  meaning  whatever  in  the  word 
design. 


6o       COMPOSITION    OF   THE   ILIAD 

The  Tenth  Book,  which  contains  the  Deeds  of 
Dolon,  I  give   up   altogether.     It   is   generally  ad- 
mitted by  modern   critics    not  to    be    part    of  the 
original  plan  of  the  poem,  and  some  ancient  critics 
thought  so  too.     "  This  rhapsody  is  said  to  have  been 
drawn  up  independently  by  Homer,  and  not  to  be  a 
part  of  the  Iliad,  but  to  have  been  arranged  for  in- 
clusion in  the  poem  by  Peisistratus,"  says  a  Scholiast. 
And  Mr.  Monro,  so  cautious  elsewhere,  is  positive 
here,  calling  it   in  his  edition   of  the   Odyssey,  p. 
291,  "undoubtedly,"  and  p.  371  "certainly,"  later 
than  the  rest  of  the  Iliad.     Sir  Richard  Jebb  uses  just 
the  same  words,  and,  needless  to  say,  a  similar  view 
is    held    by    Dr.    Leaf.      The    late    Mr.    Andrew 
Lang,  for  whose  views  on   Homer  I  feel    a    deep 
respect,  upheld  the  book ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
in  this  instance  he  weakened   his  general  case   by 
pushing    his   defence   too    far.     The    more    recent 
defence  of  the  book  by  Mr.  Shewan  proves  indeed, 
to  my  mind,  that  its  language  is  like  the  Homeric ; 
but  we   must  distinguish,  in   estimating    the    value 
of  this  argument,   the  question   of  authorship  and 
age.     I  will  not  waste  time  by  repeating  the  familiar 
arguments  against   it,  nor  have  I  any  to  add  ;  for 
as  I  can  hardly  assume  that  the  truth  of  my  view 
has  yet  established  itself  in  the  mind  of  my  reader, 
it  will  not  do  to  argue  that  it  is  excluded  by  the 
tercentenary   test.     But    I    may   state    that    it    can 
neither  be   divided    up  within   itself,  containing  as 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     6i 

it  does  579  verses,  from  which  you  cannot  take 
279  and  leave  anything  coherent  ;  nor  be  connected 
with  the  Eleventh  Book  in  such  a  way  that,  by 
striking  out  some  suspicious  passage,  you  can  make 
the  contents  lie  in  groups  of  300  verses  between 
three  natural  pauses  in  the  poem.  There  is  no 
passage  of  Book  X  more  suspicious  than  the  rest, 
though  there  may  be  a  later  line  here  and  there ; 
and  it  is  evident  that  no  pause  could  be  more 
natural  than  that  which  comes  before  the  beginning 
of  Book  XI.  I  like  the  book  myself,  as  I  like  many 
of  the  things  which  we  have  ventured  to  exclude. 
But  I  do  not  like  the  way  in  which  they  are  thrust 
into  their  present  places,  injuring  the  context  and 
suffering  themselves,  destroying  the  proportions  of 
the  poem  and  distorting  the  lines  of  the  characters. 
If  the  reader  agrees  about  this,  he  will  see  how  the 
state  of  the  argument  really  lies :  that  so  far  from 
it  being  an  objection  to  the  tercentenary  test 
that  it  excludes  such  things  as  these,  if  it  did  not 
exclude  them,  but  left  them  where  they  are,  it 
would  have  little  plausibility  at  all. 

Well,  now  we  come  to  Canto  XVIII,  the  begin- 
ning of  which  coincides  with  that  of  Book  XI,  and 
the  end  of  which  I  place  after  verse  309.  It  con- 
tains the  Prowess  of  Agamemnon,  and  terminates 
at  the  time  when  Hector,  who  during  Agamemnon's 
career  has  withdrawn  from  the  battle  by  order  of 
Zeus,  is  by  the  wounding  of  the  great  king  released 


62       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

from  his  inaction  and  slays  a  number  of  Greeks. 
This  Httle  episode  serves  to  sunder  the  Prowess 
of  Agamemnon  from  the  progress  of  the  lesser 
chiefs,  who  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  canto  come 
forward  one  by  one,  and  are  in  succession  nearly  all 
disabled.  The  9  verses  which  I  should  strike  out  are 
223-231,  which  relate  the  bringing  up  of  Iphidamas, 
son  of  Antenor,  by  Cisseus  of  Thrace,  who  gave 
him  his  own  daughter  in  marriage.  For  they  offer 
us  the  repulsive  information  that  Iphidamas  married 
his  mother's  sister,  Cisseus  being  the  father  also 
of  Theano,  who  is  Antenor's  wife.  Such  horrid  incest 
I  believe  to  be  absolutely  unknown  to  the  veritable 
Homer,  the  only  other  instance  being  given  by 
the  genealogy  of  Diomede  in  Book  XIV  1 15-125, 
which  together  with  Book  V  412  produces  the 
result  that  this  splendid  hero  was  the  brother-in- 
law  of  his  father  Tydeus.  But  on  other  grounds 
I  feel  certain  that  the  genealogy  of  Diomede  is  false ; 
and  the  fact  that  both  the  passages  concur  in  this 
particular,  which  is  otherwise  unknown  in  the  Iliad, 
may  confirm  our  belief  that  the  one  before  us  is 
spurious  as  well.  Then,  again,  the  present  passage 
does  not  face  quite  the  same  way  as  what  is  said 
about  the  marriage  of  Iphidamas  12  lines  lower 
down,  though  it  may  not  be  flatly  opposite.  For 
here  it  is  said  that  Cisseus  put  pressure  on  Iphidamas 
to  stay  with  him,  when  he  had  arrived  at  years  of 
manhood,  and  offered  him  his  daughter  in  marriage ; 


f 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     63 

which  implies  that  Cisseus  was  ambitious  of  a  match 
with  the  Trojan  prince.  But  down  below  this  eager- 
ness is  seen  on  the  side  of  Iphidamas,  who  gave  first 
of  all  a  hundred  oxen,  and  afterwards  promised  a 
thousand,  goats  withal  and  sheep,  before  he  could 
wed  the  bride.  And  here  it  is  said  that  after  his 
marriage  he  came  out  of  his  bridal  chamber  to 
follow  the  fame  of  the  Achaeans ;  but  down 
below  it  is  said  that  he  knew  no  joy  at  all  of  his 
wedded  wife,  for  all  the  price  he  paid,  which  appears 
as  if  he  never  had  entered  it.  And  why  does  not 
the  poet  despatch  the  whole  matter  of  the  marriage 
straight  off,  instead  of  giving  us  the  first  part  up 
above  and  then  retreating  on  his  traces  to  give 
the  second  part  lower  down  ?  But  I  believe  that 
the  second  passage  only  was  genuine,  and  that  he 
never  told  us  who  the  wife  of  Iphidamas  was ;  and 
therefore  another  hand  put  in  the  first  passage,  which 
informs  us  that  she  was  his  aunt.  We  may  notice 
that  Iphidamas  is  not  named  as  a  leader  of  Thracians 
in  the  Trojan  Catalogue ;  but  it  is  only  in  the 
spurious  passage  that  he  is  so  described,  bringing 
them  in  1 2  ships  which  he  left  at  Percote.  So  that 
either  it  is  another  instance  of  careless  compilation 
by  the  author  of  the  Catalogue,  or  else  this  passage 
is  a  later  addition  to  the  poem  even  than  that.  And 
here  are  9  most  suspicious  verses,  which  vanish  with 
ease  and  leave  no  trace  behind  them,  making  the 
number  of  verses  exactly  300. 


64       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

The  end  of  Canto  XIX  we  place  after  verse  617, 
where  Patroclus  leaves  the  side  of  Achilles  to  in- 
quire about  the  wounded  Machaon ;  and  with  the 
beginning  of  the  next  we  go  back  to  Nestor,  whom 
we  left  a  little  higher  up  bringing  the  wounded 
Machaon  off  the  field.  The  former  has  308  verses. 
First  of  all  there  are  a  pair  of  isolated  verses,  one  of 
which  probably,  and  the  other  certainly,  ought  to  be 
removed.  The  one  is  515,  which  was  obelized  by 
Aristarchus  and  Aristophanes,  and  omitted  by  Zeno- 
dotus.  The  physician  Machaon  is  wounded,  and 
Idomeneus  at  once  urges  Nestor  to  carry  him  off, 
adding,  "  for  a  man  who  is  a  doctor  is  worth  a  host 
of  others  "  ;  to  which  is  now  subjoined,  "  to  cut  out 
arrows  and  apply  soothing  medicines."  The  ancient 
critics  objected  with  reason,  firstly,  that  there  is  no 
necessity  to  enumerate  the  duties  of  a  doctor,  and 
secondly,  that  by  limiting  them  to  the  extraction  of 
arrows  and  medication  of  their  wounds  the  notion 
of  a  doctor  is  degraded.  Dr.  Leaf  affirms  that  the 
line  fairly  represents  the  primitive  stage  of  Homeric 
medicine.  But  if  this  was  all  the  length  it  went, 
a  practitioner  of  it  is  not  well  described  as  worth  a 
host  of  warriors.  Dr.  Hentze  brackets  the  verse. 
The  other  verse  is  543,  which  is  found  in  none  of 
our  manuscripts,  but  is  quoted  in  connection  with 
542  in  Aristotle's  Rhetoric  and  by  Plutarch,  whence 
it  was  inserted  in  the  text  by  Wolf.  But  unlike  the 
former  instance  of  this  kind,  it  can  hardly  be  con- 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     65 

strued  ;  and  of  the  four  places  in  which  it  is  quoted, 
it  is  quoted  differently  in  each.  It  says  that  Zeus 
was  indignant  with  Hector,  whenever  he  fought  with 
a  better  man ;  and  it  purports  to  give  the  reason 
why  he  avoided  fighting  with  Ajax.  But  that  Hector 
should  be  scrupulous  about  fighting  with  Ajax,  after 
the  duel  in  Book  VII,  we  readily  grasp;  and  the  reason 
here  alleged  is  absurd,  for  the  very  next  thing  done 
by  Zeus  is  to  terrify  Ajax  himself,  since  Hector  will 
not  do  it  for  him.  The  verse  is  bracketed  or  re- 
jected in  all  the  texts.  So  much  for  2  of  our  8  verses. 
Now  there  is  a  simile  of  10  lines  in  verses  548- 
557,  wherein  the  retreating  Ajax  is  compared  to  a 
lion  who  reluctantly  leaves  a  fold  of  oxen,  although 
longing  for  the  flesh,  being  driven  off  by  the  javelins 
and  burning  faggots  of  the  countrymen.  But  6  of 
the  10  verses  are  repeated  word  for  word  in  Book 
XVII  659-664;  and  since  this  simile  is  almost 
immediately  followed  by  another  long  simile  of 
8  lines,  in  which  Ajax  is  likened  to  an  ass  cudgelled 
out  of  a  cornfield,  most  editors  reject  the  other  here. 
But  Dr.  Leaf  thinks  it  appropriate  here  and  pointless 
in  the  other  place.  I  suspect  that  his  belief  in  the 
originality  of  this  part  of  Book  XI  and  his  want  of 
faith  in  the  originality  of  that  part  of  Book  XVII 
may  have  influenced  his  decision  about  this  vigorous 
simile;  but  it  may  not  be  so,  for  Professor  Gilbert 
Murray  agrees  with  him.  But  with  all  due  respect 
to  these  excellent  scholars,  I  see  strong  ground  for 

£ 


66       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

an  opposite  conclusion.  For  you  can  cut  out  the  6 
repeated  verses  here,  leaving  in  the  4  original  ones, 
which  by  themselves  make  up  a  compact  little  simile 
before  we  come  on  to  the  long  one  of  the  ass ;  and 
this  is  the  poet's  manner  again  and  again.  But  in 
the  other  place  you  cannot  cut  out  the  6  repeated 
verses  without  making  nonsense  of  those  that  are 
original.  So  that  if  you  remove  the  simile  there, 
you  lose  five  original  lines  of  the  poet ;  but  by  merely 
removing  the  repeated  verses  here,  you  do  not  lose 
a  single  original  line.  Nor  is  the  simile  in  the  other 
book  so  pointless  after  all.  For  there  it  is  applied  to 
Menelaus,  who  is  slowly  withdrawing  from  the  body 
of  Patroclus ;  and  he  is  very  well  compared  to  a 
lion  who  leaves  the  flesh  that  he  longs  for.  But 
here  Ajax  has  no  corpse  in  front  of  him  at  all ;  so 
that  it  is  not  half  as  appropriate.  I  would  therefore 
remove  the  six  verses  here,  and  make  the  main  simile 
that  of  the  ass.  And  is  it  not  most  odd  that  by 
this  simple  operation  we  produce  the  round  number 
of  300  lines  ? 

The  next  canto  carries  us  on  into  the  Twelfth 
Book.  But  it  will  be  more  convenient  to  start  from 
the  end  of  that  book,  where  there  is  an  unmistak- 
able pause.  For  at  that  moment  the  Trojans  carry 
the  Wall,  and  Zeus  turns  around  his  eyes  to  the 
Thracians,  the  Mysians,  the  Hippemolgi,  and  the 
Abii,  justest  of  men ;  and  Poseidon  has  an  innings. 
And  here  we  come  to  what  I  consider  one  of  the 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     67 

most  convincing  examples  of  our  theory ;  for  it 
solves  a  difficulty  which  has  perplexed  Homeric 
critics  for  1760  years.  I  say  this  to  rouse  the 
reader's  attention,  on  which  the  solution  makes  some 
demand.  Well,  if  we  look  back  about  300  lines 
from  the  end  of  the  book,  we  shall  find  a  most 
suitable  pause  after  XII  174.  For  at  this  point 
Asius,  son  of  Hyrtacus,  who  has  made  a  confident 
charge  at  a  gate,  but  has  found  himself  foiled  by 
the  presence  of  the  two  Lapithae,  Polypoetes  and 
Leonteus,  upbraids  Zeus  in  words  of  bitter  disap- 
pointment; after  which  the  poet  tells  us  in  two 
lines  that  Zeus  was  not  at  all  moved  by  it,  for  he 
meant  to  give  Hector  the  glory  of  first  getting  over 
the  Wall.  And  here  we  part  company  with  Asius 
until  Book  XIII  388,  where  he  is  slain  by  Idomeneus, 
so  fulfilling  what  is  stated  by  anticipation  at  verse 
1 1 7  of  our  present  book. 

But  here  we  seem  face  to  face  with  a  staggering 
difficulty.  For  from  this  point  to  the  end  of  the  book 
there  are  only  297  lines;  and  there  is  no  ground 
for  supposing  any  verses  to  be  lost,  the  tendency  in 
Homer  being  all  the  other  way,  to  put  in  verses  that 
ought  not  to  be  there.  And  what  makes  the  matter 
worse,  the  first  7  of  these  verses  are  almost  certainly 
spurious.  They  are  completely  pointless  in  themselves ; 
the  ancient  critics  all  rejected  them  ;  the  first  of  them 
is  evidently  borrowed  from  XV  414;  the  second  is 

dpyakiov  8€  ^u  ravra  dihv  ws  ttcii/t'  dyopcvcrat, 


68       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

said  in  the  person  of  the  poet,  which  is  very  rare ; 
the  third  and  fourth  contain  a  violent  disjunction 
of  rei^og  from  its  epithet  Xai'vov,  with  Trvp  coming  in 
between,  which  has  led  some  annotators  to  give  it 
the  epithet ;  and  as  for  the  last  of  them,  more  anon. 
The  difficulty  is  not  in  deciding  that  the  verses 
ought  to  be  rejected,  for  every  man  must  feel  that 
they  are  false,  but  in  discovering  why  they  were 
ever  put  in.  For  although  there  is  a  mention  of 
the  Lapithae  in  the  last,  yet  this  verse  so  abruptly 
closes  the  paragraph  at  the  end  of  which  it  stands, 
that  it  seems  quite  impossible  to  suppose  that  the  6 
preceding  verses  were  concocted  to  lead  up  to  it ; 
and  there  is  a  perfectly  genuine  mention  of  the 
Lapithae  53  lines  higher  up,  which  makes  it  super- 
fluous to  remind  us  that  the  heroes  who  now  come 
on  the  scene  belong  to  that  tribe.  Dr.  Leaf  con- 
siders that  they  were  meant  to  support  a  theory 
about  the  gates  of  the  Greek  camp.  However  this 
may  be,  spurious  the  verses  undoubtedly  are ;  and 
so  we  are  left  with  only  290  lines. 

But  there  is  a  difficulty  ten  times  greater  up  above  in 
this  book,  and  perhaps  the  one  will  assist  us  to  sur- 
mount the  other.  If  the  reader  will  look  at  verses 
1 3 1- 1 40,  he  will  see  that  in  this  passage  the  two  Lapith 
chiefs  are  described  as  standing  before  the  gate  like  tall 
oaks  upon  the  mountains,  which  withstand  the  wind 
and  rain  for  days  and  days,  so  firmly  fixed  by  their 
great  stretching  roots.     But  again,  if  he  goes  5  lines 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     69 

lower  down,  he  will  find  these  same  Lapith  chiefs 
charging  out  of  the  gate  like  a  pair  of  wild  boars ; 
which  is  a  mere  impossibility.  You  cannot  be 
planted  before  a  gate  like  a  tall  oak,  and  at  the  same 
time  go  charging  out  of  it  like  a  wild  boar.  This 
difficulty  perplexed  the  ancient  critics  horribly,  and 
well  it  might ;  for  nobody  but  a  lunatic  could  think 
of  such  a  thing,  however  fine  the  language  in  which 
it  is  said.  Porphyry  tells  us  that  some  of  them 
wished  to  transpose  verses  141- 153,  which  contain 
the  simile  of  the  wild  boars,  to  a  position  higher  up ; 
and  Hephaestion  has  another  way  out  of  it.  But 
the  true  solution  is  to  take  the  10  verses  just  above 
Porphyry's,  verses  1 31-140,  which  contain  the  simile 
of  the  tall  oaks,  and  put  them  into  the  place  of  the 
7  spurious  verses  which  we  have  expelled,  and  to 
which  no  doubt  their  displacement  is  due.  The 
planting  before  the  gate  will  then  follow  the  rushing 
out  instead  of  preceding  it,  which  was  the  object 
of  the  ancient  transposition ;  and  we  shall  have 
exactly  300  lines  to  the  end  of  the  book.  This 
makes  the  same  junction  of  verse  130  with  verse 
141  that  Porphyry's  critics  proposed,  but  of  course 
not  the  same  at  the  other  end,  the  piece  that  we 
move  up  being  longer  than  theirs.  The  narrative 
now  flows  on  with  a  pellucid  smoothness.  The 
two  Lapithae  charge  out  and  stop  the  rush  of 
Asius,  much  to  his  disgust.  Then  follows  the  little 
episode  of  his  indignation    against  Zeus,  with   its 


70       COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

concluding  couplet.  And  then,  with  the  beginning 
of  the  next  canto,  we  go  back  to  the  Lapithae  again  : 
"  So  they  two  stood  before  the  lofty  gate  like  tall 
oaks  upon  the  mountains,"  and  so  on  to  the  exploits 
of  Polypoetes  and  Leonteus  respectively.  And  here, 
by  the  way,  I  must  correct  what  I  said  about  Asius 
above ;  for  after  this  transposition  we  do  not  take 
quite  a  final  leave  of  him  at  the  end  of  the  last 
canto,  but  he  is  once  more  mentioned  as  leading  on 
the  Trojans  against  the  Lapiths.  But  the  pause  is 
good  and  clear  all  the  same,  and  the  mention  makes 
no  difference.     This  is  Canto  XXI. 

We  now  return  to  Canto  XX,  adding  what  re- 
mained of  the  Eleventh  Book  to  what  is  left  of 
the  Twelfth  before  the  pause,  less  the  lo  verses 
which  we  put  at  the  beginning  of  Canto  XXI. 
The  sum  is  231  +  174—10  =  395.  The  reader 
doubtless  surmises  what  this  large  figure  imports. 
The  canto  contains  a  long  story  of  Nestor.  But 
before  we  come  to  it,  there  is  a  single  verse  which 
must  necessarily  go.  It  is  XI  662,  in  which  Nestor 
tells  Patroclus  that  Eurypylus  is  wounded,  as  well 
as  Diomede  and  Odysseus  and  Agamemnon.  This 
is  hardly  possible;  for  Nestor  left  the  field  before 
it  happened.  The  verse  is  omitted  in  a  great 
many  manuscripts;  it  is  obviously  borrowed  from 
XVI  27,  where  Patroclus  repeats  Nestor's  words 
about  the  other  chiefs  to  Achilles,  but  adds  the 
name  of  Eurypylus  from  his  own  knowledge ;  for 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     71 

he  meets  him  coming  wounded  from  the  field  on 
leaving  Nestor's  tent.  Hence  all  texts  bracket  the 
verse.  Well,  now  we  expect  to  find  94  verses 
which  go  out  of  Nestor's  speech  of  148.  And 
sure  enough  we  find  them  all,  waiting  there  ready 
to  depart,  setting  out  with  the  last  third  part  of 
verse  668  ov  yap  e/x^  *?,  which  paves  the  way  for 
the  digressional  formula  elO'  cog  ^/Swoijull  just  below, 
and  ending  up  with  the  first  two  thirds  of  verse 
762  cog  eov,  ei  ttot  eov  -ye,  julct  avSpdcrij/,  which 
close  the  story.  Cut  it  all  out,  and  the  first 
two  thirds  of  the  one  verse  will  fit  on  to  the 
last  third  of  the  other  without  leaving  a  trace  of 
the  operation,  and  we  have  our  300  lines. 

But  I  admit  that  at  first  sight  it  looks  as  if  we 
ought  to  begin  our  excision  4  lines  higher  up,  with 
the  words  avrap  'A^AXet'?,  which  are  the  very  words 
with  which  we  resume  below;  and  so  Dr.  Leaf 
says,  "From  avrap  ''A')(iW€vg  here  to  the  same 
words  in  762  is  beyond  a  doubt  a  later  passage." 
But  I  am  persuaded  that  it  is  otherwise,  and  that 
the  words  are  a  rhetorical  repetition,  and  a  very 
fine  one  too.  For  if  we  cut  out  what  comes 
between  avrap  ^A')(iX\evg  and  ov  yap  ijULrj  *g^  we  shall 
lose  some  most  appropriate  verses.  "  Diomede  is 
wounded,  and  Odysseus  is  wounded,  and  Agamem- 
non is  wounded,"  says  Nestor,  "and  here  am  I 
bringing  Machaon  also  wounded  from  the  field. 
But   Achilles,  whole   though   he   is,   has   neither 


72       COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

care  nor  pity  for  the  Greeks.  Is  he  waiting  till 
our  ships  are  burning  with  the  enemy's  fire,  and 
ourselves  are  slain  one  after  the  other?  But 
Achilles  will  enjoy  that  integrity  all  by  him- 
self! Yet  I  think  that  he  will  shed  many  tears  of 
repentance,  when  the  people  have  utterly  perished." 
You  see  how  well  the  repetition  of  the  name  marks 
out  Achilles  from  all  his  wounded  and  dead  com- 
panions, whose  life  alone  could  lend  enjoyment 
to  his  strength  and  his  eminence  in  arms.  And 
surely  the  connection  of  eaOXog  and  t??  apeTtjg  on 
either  side  of  the  interpolation  is  intentional,  the 
definite  article  with  aperrjg  referring  back  to  the 
ability  for  service  expressed  in  iarOXog^  not  to  mention 
the  opposition  of  the  terms  to  the  disabled  chiefs 
and  burning  ships.  Then  if  we  remove  what  lies 
between  the  repeated  names,  we  lose  the  notion 
of  the  successive  slaughter,  a  thought  suggested 
to  Nestor  by  the  successive  wounding  in  this  day's 
fight,  than  which  there  is  nothing  more  natural. 
And  again  it  is  just  at  the  point  of  junction  which 
we  have  taken  that  absurdity  first  begins.  "Is 
he  waiting  till  our  ships  are  burning  with  the 
enemy's  fire  ^  For  my  strength  is  not  what  it 
formerly  was  in  my  flexible  limbs.  Would  that  I 
were  as  young  as  when,"  and  so  on  to  the 
following  story.  But  who  is  this  braggart,  who 
imagines  that  the  safety  of  the  whole  Greek  host 
might  be  reckoned  to  depend  upon  himself.'*     For 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     73 

the  emphasis  on  the  pronoun  distinguishes  him 
as  the  natural  alternative  to  Achilles.  Not  our 
old  friend  Nestor,  who  is  as  full  of  modesty  as 
he  is  full  of  wisdom  ?  No,  but  the  phantom  of 
Nestor,  which  is  used  as  a  vehicle  for  the  long 
self-laudatory  tales  throughout  the  poem,  and  which 
here  goes  on  for  94  lines.  And  as  for  the  story 
itself,  these  are  Dr.  LeaPs  words:  "This  lifelike 
picture  of  a  little  border  raid  is  in  itself  inimitable, 
and  we  may  well  be  grateful  for  it.  But  yet,  if 
we  take  it  with  its  context,  we  are  forced  to 
admit  that  it  has  no  bearing  on  the  situation, 
and  is  grotesquely  out  of  place  at  a  moment 
when  Patroklos  has  refused  even  to  sit  down, 
in  order  that  he  may  return  with  all  speed  to 
Achilles.  It  spoils  the  effect  of  the  other  story 
at  the  end  of  the  speech,  which  is  essential.  The 
language  is  notably  Odyssean  in  character,  as  is 
pointed  out  in  the  notes.  The  four-horse  chariot 
is  a  mark  of  late  origin."  None  of  this  can  be 
gainsaid,  and  there  is  more  of  it  which  I  omit  to 
quote.  But  observe  that  our  theory,  while  ex- 
cluding the  story  which  is  said  to  be  grotesquely 
out  of  place,  does  not  touch  a  line  of  the  story 
which  is  said  to  be  essential. 

We  proceed  to  Canto  XXII,  the  beginning  of 
which  falls  in  with  that  of  Book  XIII,  and  the  end 
of  which  I  place  after  verse  329,  this  being  the 
moment  when  Idomeneus  and  Meriones,  after  some 


74       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

little  preparation,  re-enter  the  battle.  The  next 
canto  begins  with  the  Prowess  of  Idomeneus.  The 
canto  before  is  largely  occupied  with  the  cautious 
exertions  of  Poseidon,  while  the  eyes  of  Zeus  are 
turned  away,  which  become  more  pronounced  two 
cantos  later  on,  when  Zeus  is  tricked  to  sleep.  And 
here  again  our  doctrine  adjusts  itself  as  if  by  magic 
to  the  previous  suspicions  of  scholars.  For  though 
there  is  no  untimely  tale  or  long  genealogy  of  29 
verses,  there  is  a  passage  every  whit  as  clear.  Look 
at  Dr.  Leafs  introduction :  "  Doubts  have  also  been 
thrown  on  266-294,  but  they  cannot  be  regarded  as 
fundamental."  Turn  to  Dr.  Leafs  notes :  "266- 
94  is  a  passage  which  has  aroused  general  suspicion, 
so  inappropriate  does  this  verbose  vaingloriousness 
seem  at  so  critical  a  moment.  Beyond  this  general 
'  subjective '  difficulty,  however,  there  is  no  serious 
cause  of  offence,  if  we  except  268,  which  is  very 
strange,  as  we  should  have  supposed  that  Meriones 
and  Idomeneus,  so  closely  connected  in  every  way, 
must  have  had  huts  near  together."  To  the  sub- 
jective difficulty  of  the  passage  I  apply  an  objective 
test,  and  find  that  the  two  coincide  exactly ;  for 
266-294  is  exactly  29  lines.  And  you  will  ob- 
serve that  what  is  here  called  "  very  strange  "  occurs 
in  the  third  line  of  the  passage ;  so  that  the  inter- 
polator could  not  go  on  for  three  lines  together 
without  betraying  himself.  And  the  beginning  and 
end  of  the  passage  are  well  marked ;  for  you  can 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     75 

continue  with  w?  (pdro,  Mrjpiovrjg  Se  in  verse  295  as 
well  as  with  t6v  S'  au  Mrjpiovrjg,  and  leave  no  per- 
ceptible   trace. 

What  happens  is  this.  Meriones  breaks  his 
spear  on  the  shield  of  Deiphobus,  and  goes  to 
his  tent  to  fetch  another.  There  or  thereabouts 
he  meets  Idomeneus  coming  from  his  own  tent 
fully  armed.  For  Idomeneus  had  left  the  battle 
before,  to  give  a  charge  to  the  physicians  about 
a  wounded  comrade,  and  now  resumes  his  arms 
in  order  to  re-enter  the  fight :  this  of  course  being 
designed  to  account  for  the  previous  silence  about 
Idomeneus,  during  the  attack  on  the  Wall,  the 
poet  finding  it  convenient  to  hold  over  his  exploits 
to  the  following  canto ;  though  he  kept  us  in  mind 
of  his  valour  by  what  he  said  about  Asius  above. 
Now  the  fact  that  Idomeneus  has  laid  aside  his 
armour  has  aroused  some  suspicion,  which  would 
extend  the  range  of  the  interpolation  in  a  manner  most 
unsuited  to  our  theory.  But  in  the  first  place  you 
cannot  detach  that  part  of  the  episode  without  being 
drawn  into  wider  ravages,  which  are  wholly  im- 
probable. And  in  the  next  place  the  suspicion  itself 
is  all  a  mistake.  The  Homeric  heroes  lay  aside 
their  armour  as  soon  as  ever  a  chance  is  given  them. 
This  is  shown  by  Book  VII  1 01-193,  where  between 
Hector's  issuing  a  challenge  and  the  settling  who 
shall  accept  it,  Menelaus  and  Ajax  and  others  have  all 
laid  down  their  arms,  and  indeed  long  before,  during 


76       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

the  delivery  of  the  challenge  itself,  when  Hector 
has  stopped  the  fight  for  a  moment  to  make  it ;  as 
we  may  learn  from  the  first  of  those  verses.  Well, 
Meriones  and  Idomeneus  meet,  and  Idomeneus  is 
surprised  that  his  friend  has  left  the  field.  Meriones 
briefly  tells  him  why,  and  Idomeneus  proudly  replies 
that  he  will  find  standing  in  his  tent  a  score  or  more 
of  spears,  which  he  has  taken  from  the  Trojans. 
We  now  expect  Meriones  to  run  and  take  a  spear, 
and  hasten  back  with  his  comrade  into  the  field ; 
and  so  he  does  30  lines  lower  down.  But  mean- 
while the  words  of  Idomeneus,  which  again  are  only 
meant  to  remind  us  of  his  valour  and  to  send  him 
off  into  the  fight  with  an  air  of  success,  are  con- 
strued by  Meriones  as  an  affront  upon  himself;  and 
in  this  way  the  interpolator  makes  a  setting  for  his 
gem,  which  is  one  indeed,  being  a  little  general 
account  of  an  ambuscade,  where  the  worth  of  a  man 
is  chiefly  seen.  "  So  have  I,"  says  Meriones,  "  so  have 
I  plenty  of  Trojan  spoils;  but  they  are  far  away 
where  I  cannot  come  at  them.  And  I  am  every  bit 
as  eager  to  fight  as  yourself;  and  you  of  all  the 
Greeks  should  know  that  best."  Then  Idomeneus  : 
"I  know  your  worth  very  well.  Why  say  these 
things  ?  For  if  at  this  moment  all  the  best  of  us 
here  by  the  ships  were  to  be  chosen  for  an  ambush," 
and  so  on  with  the  behaviour  of  the  coward  and 
the  hero  respectively  in  that  trying  incident  of  war. 
And   all   this   at  a  moment  when   Poseidon   him- 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     77 

self  has  urged  Idomeneus  to  be  quick,  and  when 
Meriones  is  in  a  passion  to  get  back  at  Deiphobus 
with  another  spear !  Good,  but  out  of  place,  must 
again  be  our  reflection  ;  and  the  linguistic  difficulties 
of  this  passage  are  great. 

Canto  XXIII  is  the  central  one  of  the  poem, 
having  22  cantos  on  each  side  of  it.  And  we  may 
notice,  as  a  small  indication  of  the  truth  of  our 
theory,  that  it  is  assigned  to  the  warrior  who  is 
stated  to  be  jjLearaiTroXLog,  half-grey  or  middle-aged ; 
which  is  perhaps  the  reason  why  the  poet  has  held 
back  this  respectable  hero,  though  unwounded,  for  so 
long.  But  this  intimate  touch,  like  his  solicitude  about 
an  unnamed  comrade  in  XIII  210-214,  his  infirmity 
in  his  feet  in  XIII  512-515,  his  trouble  with  his  eyes 
in  XXIII  457-477,  and  his  iterated  confidence  in 
doctors,  suggests  special  knowledge  of  the  Cretan 
prince.  And  the  great  deference  shown  to  him 
by  Agamemnon  in  IV  257-264,  together  with  the 
lack  of  any  real  zest  in  describing  his  actual  per- 
formances, may  lead  us  to  think  that  the  poet  had 
a  courtly  motive  for  giving  a  place  of  honour  in  the 
poem  to  his  deeds. 

But  before  he  fairly  embarks  us  on  his  exploits, 
he  sums  up  the  situation  in  what  now  appear  as  a 
couple  of  paragraphs,  the  second  of  which  ends 
with  the  metaphor  of  a  tug  of  war ;  which  again  is 
not  unsuitable  here  in  the  middle  of  the  poem. 
The  pause  I  set  after  verse  642,  where  the  canto 


78       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

is  wound  up  with  a  very  striking  speech  of  Mene- 
laus  over  the  dead  Peisander,  and  3  more  verses 
which  end  the  incident ;  after  which  a  new  incident 
begins,  which  is  not  so  very  striking  in  itself,  except 
for  a  curious  oversight  on  the  poet's  part,  but 
which  serves  to  bring  forward  Paris,  as  the  last 
canto  closed  with  Menelaus.  So  that  the  principal 
parties  to  the  quarrel  are  with  much  art  brought 
before  us  in  the  middle  of  the  poem,  and  then  again 
permitted  to  retire.  The  former  canto  has  313  lines. 
Well,  if  the  reader  will  look  at  the  second  of  the 
two  paragraphs  said  above,  verses  345-360,  he 
will  see  that  13  of  these  16  verses  are  devoted  to 
explaining  the  sentiments  of  Zeus  and  Poseidon 
respectively.  Dr.  Leaf  says,  on  verse  345,  "The 
following  passage — to  360 — is  clearly  out  of  place  ; 
there  appears  to  be  no  other  case  of  such  a  lengthy 
and  superfluous  recapitulation  in  Homer.  Perhaps 
it  may  have  originally  formed  the  proem  to  this 
book,  and  been  superseded  by  the  more  elaborate 
passage  which  now  begins  it."  Now  I  should  not 
myself  have  condemned  the  passage  on  this  ground ; 
for  on  my  view  it  is  not  so  unnatural  that  the 
sentiments  of  the  two  opposing  gods  should  be 
distinctly  stated  here.  Nevertheless  I  am  confident 
that  the  first  13  lines  of  the  passage  are  false,  and 
that  the  opportunity  which  the  situation  afforded 
of  saying  something  about  the  two  gods,  in  addition 
to  what  is  said  about  the  two  armies  in  the  previous 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     79 

paragraph,  has  been  seized  by  some  clever  hand. 
There  are  particular  difficulties  in  the  lines;  but 
the  plain  and  simple  reason  is  that  their  insertion 
has  made  the  3  remaining  verses  unintelligible. 
These  verses  contain  the  metaphor  of  the  tug  of 
war,  the  important  pair  being 

Tol  S*  fjOtSos  KpaTeprjs  kol  ofxoitov  TroXe/xoto 
Tret/oap  €7raAAa^ai/Tes  Itt'  dfx<f>OT€poL(Ti  rdvvacrav. 

The  words  as  they  stand  refer  to  the  two  gods, 
though  it  ought  to  be  rw  as  at  the  beginning  of 
the  paragraph,  and  they  mean,  "And  they,  alter- 
nately giving  and  taking,  stretched  tight  above 
both  parties  a  rope  of  strife  and  war."  But  can  we 
conceive  of  such  a  rope,  presumably  meant  to  pull 
about  the  hostile  parties,  being  stretched  above 
their  heads  ?  What  manner  of  influence  could  it 
be  thought  to  have,  unless  some  mode  of  connection 
with  those  below  were  indicated  ?  And  how  could 
it  be  possibly  stretched  tight  by  the  two  gods,  Zeus 
sitting  up  on  Ida,  with  his  eyes  averted  to  the  close- 
fighting  Mysians  and  milk-eating  Hippemolgians, 
and  Poseidon  walking  down  on  the  plain,  in  the 
likeness  of  Thoas  the  Aetolian  ?  Homer  is  seldom 
as  confusing  in  his  imagery  as  this.  The  tug  of 
war  must  take  place  between  the  parties  themselves, 
not  over  their  heads,  just  as  when  Poseidon  and 
Hector  have  a  tussle,  in  XIV  389  alvoTarnv  epiSa 
TTToXejuLoio  ravvcra-avy  the  selfsame  metaphor  as  here. 


8o       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

We  ought  then  to  throw  out  the  13  verses  about 
the  gods,  and  rectify  the  mistake  that  their  insertion 
has  caused  by  reading  eV  aWriXoiari^  "  stretched  tight 
against  each  other,"  and  join  the  3  verses  on  to  the 
end  of  the  last  paragraph  about  the  armies,  as  toI 
sufficiently  shows.  And  this  same  word  aXXr/Xoto-f, 
though  it  does  not  appear  in  any  of  our  copies,  was 
a  variant  in  the  text  of  Aristarchus.  This  makes 
our  300  lines. 

We  advance  to  Canto  XXIV,  the  end  of  which 
cannot  be  placed  earlier  than  Book  XIV  134.  For 
there  is  begun,  with  the  familiar  words  ovS'  aXao- 
a-KOTTirjv,  the  episode  known  as  the  Deception  of  Zeus, 
which  was  designed  to  give  Poseidon  a  free  hand 
on  the  plain ;  and  things  go  swimmingly  thereafter. 
This  makes  329  lines.  There  are  two  isolated 
verses  which  must  certainly  go.  The  first  is  XIII 
731.  Polydamas  says  to  Hector,  "To  one  man 
God  has  given  works  of  war,  but  in  the  bosom 
of  another,  Zeus  places  serviceable  wit,  and  many 
are  the  men  who  benefit  by  that "  ;  which  is  the 
precise  distinction  between  Hector  and  himself. 
But  between  the  two  comes  "and  to  another  man 
dancing,  and  to  a  different  man  lyre  and  song." 
The  verse  is  omitted  in  a  number  of  manuscripts, 
and  we  are  told  the  name  of  the  man  who  put  it  in, 
a  certain  Zenodotus  of  Mallus,  who  thought  our 
Homer  a  Chaldee.  All  the  texts  that  I  have  seen 
reject  it.     The  other  verse  is  XIII  749,  in  which 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     8i 

we  hear  that  Hector,  pleased  with  the  wise  sug- 
gestion of  Polydamas,  sprang  from  his  chariot  to  the 
ground.  This  is  impossible.  Hector  and  the  other 
Trojan  chiefs  all  left  their  chariots  outside  the 
trench,  as  we  are  told  at  XII  80-85  >  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^Y 
one  who  brought  his  across  was  Asius,  driving 
straight  over  a  causeway  up  to  the  gate  where  he 
found  the  two  Lapithae  posted.  And  consistently 
with  this,  we  find  at  XIII  385  that  he  alone  of 
all  has  got  his  chariot  through  the  gate,  when  the 
Greeks  have  yielded  the  Wall ;  a  verse  on  which 
Dr.  Leaf  most  unfairly  fixes,  when  he  says  that 
chariots  are  introduced  exactly  as  if  the  battle  were 
in  the  open  plain,  meaning  to  show  that  the  Wall 
is  ignored,  the  poet  not  having  occasion  to  mention 
it  between  verses  124  and  679.  But  this  was  an 
exceptional  case  fully  explained  before ;  and  why  we 
should  expect  to  hear  much  about  the  Wall,  when 
we  have  left  it  behind  us  and  are  getting  on  to  the 
Ships,  I  do  not  quite  conceive.  But  to  conclude, 
some  manuscripts  omit  the  verse,  which  is  wrongly 
repeated  from  XII  81,  where  the  circumstances 
are  similar,  and  the  texts  as  a  rule  put  it  out.  Now 
it  might  be  supposed  that  we  ought*  to  prune  an- 
other pair  of  verses ;  for  into  this  canto  come  the 
famous  pair,  XIII  658-659,  in  which  Pylaemenes, 
king  of  the  Paphlagonians,  who  was  taken  off  by 
Menelaus  at  V  576,  comes  to  life  again  and  follows 
his  son   Harpalion's  body  back  to  Troy,  shedding 

F 


82       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

tears  the  while.  But  with  most  modern  editors 
I  regard  this  as  a  perfectly  genuine  oversight,  and 
not  to  be  touched  for  an  instant.  For  not  to 
insist  upon  the  wide  interval  between  the  Fifth  and 
Thirteenth  Books,  with  the  innumerable  names  of 
killed  and  wounded  in  between,  we  can  see  how 
easily  the  poet  might  slip  into  the  mistake.  He 
has  told  us  up  above  how  Harpalion  followed  his 
dear  father  to  the  war,  and  never  came  back  to  his 
own  native  land  ;  and  it  makes  a  very  good  ending 
to  the  incident  to  tell  us  how  the  father  followed 
his  dear  son  to  the  tomb,  from  which  he  would 
never  return. 

We  must  therefore  find  27  verses  elsewhere,  if 
our  theory  is  to  hold  water ;  but  we  have  only  to 
divide  the  number  into  1 6  and  1 1  to  note  how  it 
can  be  done.  For  the  16  verses  XIII  685-700  are 
very  suspicious,  as  all  admit,  containing  the  sole 
mention  of  lonians  in  Homer,  and  seeming  to  make 
them  identical  with  or  to  be  fully  represented  by  the 
Athenians;  the  sole  use  of  the  name  Phthians, 
whose  leaders  are  stated  to  be  Medon  and  Podarces, 
whereas  in  the  Catalogue  Medon  succeeded  to  the 
command  of  the  disabled  Philoctetes,  and  Podarces 
to  that  of  the  buried  Protesilaus,  over  different 
though  neighbouring  tribes ;  and  the  three  chieftains 
of  the  Epeians  here  named  are  all  different  from 
the  four  in  the  Catalogue,  where  one  of  them,  Meges, 
is  leader  of  the  Dulichians.     Then  the  two  epithets 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     83 

€\k€')(ltoi)V€9  and  (j)aiSiiuL6evT€9  never  occur  again  in 
Homer;  while  the  first  is  absurdly  misapplied  to 
soldiers  engaged  in  fighting,  and  the  second  is  in- 
correctly formed.  Nor  have  I  noticed  another 
instance  in  the  Iliad  where  the  poet  introduces  heroes 
with  the  words  evOa  Se,  as  he  does  here,  though  he  uses 
€v6a  and  cvO'  au  often  enough ;  which  is  a  small  point, 
but  a  straw  will  show  what  way  the  wind  is  blowing. 
And  near  the  end  there  are  4  verses,  which  inform 
us  that  Medon  was  a  natural  son  of  O'lleus,  and  the 
brother  of  Ajax,  but  dwelt  in  Phylace,  having  slain 
a  kinsman  of  his  stepmother  Eriopis,  whom  O'fleus 
had  to  wife ;  which  4  verses  are  repeated  word  for 
word  in  XV  333-336,  and  this  sort  of  thing  cannot 
be  told  twice.  Leave  out  the  16  verses,  and  the 
paragraph  opens  very  well  by  telling  us  that  Ajax, 
son  of  O'lleus,  no  longer  stood  apart  from  Ajax,  son 
of  Telamon,  not  for  a  moment ;  for  we  heard  before 
how  they  were  separated  by  an  urgent  call  from 
Menestheus  at  Book  XII  331-370. 

The  other  11  verses  are  XIV  1 15-125,  which 
contain  the  genealogy  bringing  out  the  fact  that 
Diomede  married  his  aunt.  But  I  need  not  waste 
time  in  attacking  it.  For,  in  the  first  place,  it  is  a 
genealogy ;  and,  in  the  next  place,  it  goes  out  with 
perfect  ease.  And  it  leads  off  in  the  regular  strain, 
UopOei  yap  rpeig  iraiSes  and  SO  forth,  which  every 
man  who  reads  this  short  and  hurried  consultation  of 
the  chiefs  must  condemn  as  out  of  tune.     Dr.  LeaPs 


84       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

instinct  has  fixed  the  limits  with  almost  perfect 
precision :  "But  the  whole  passage  from  114  to  125 
is  not  only  needless  but  incongruous,  and  quite 
alien  to  the  character  of  Diomedes,  who  is  fond  of 
alluding  to  his  father's  prowess,  but  could  hardly 
give  a  jejune  catalogue  of  his  relationships  at  such 
a  moment."  I  leave  in  verse  114,  which  closes 
the  preceding  sentence,  and  seems  to  me  fine  and 
grand ;  but,  for  the  rest,  the  passage  which  is  both 
incongruous  and  needless  to  Dr.  Leaf  is  exactly  the 
one  that  we  excise. 

On  we  move  to  Canto  XXV,  the  Deception  of 
Zeus  and  Poseidon's  open  succour  of  the  Greeks. 
It  goes  down  to  verse  439,  where  the  first  and  fore- 
most object  is  attained,  that  of  getting  Hector  out 
of  the  way.  He  is  wounded  by  Ajax,  carried  off 
the  field  by  his  comrades  to  the  Ford  of  Scamander, 
where  he  swoons  a  second  time,  and  there  for  the 
present  he  is  left.  This  makes  305  lines.  Now  for 
the  most  part  this  canto  is  admitted  to  be  nearly 
perfect.  "  Only  one  passage,"  says  Dr.  Leaf,  "  the 
'  Leporello-catalogue '  of  317-327,  has  been  widely 
questioned  from  Aristarchos  onwards."  It  contains 
a  list  of  ladies  beloved  by  Zeus,  but  is  not  rightly 
called  a  catalogue.  It  is  rather  a  crescendo  or 
climax,  in  which  Zeus  says  to  Hera  that  he  never 
felt  a  passion  for  one  of  them,  no,  nor  for  Hera  her- 
self before,  comparable  to  that  which  he  feels  for  her 
at  present.     But  what  does  indeed  make  it  look  like 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     85 

a  catalogue  is,  not  the  naming  of  the  ladies  them- 
selves, but  the  five  alternate  verses  318,  320,  322, 
324-325,  in  which  the  offspring  of  each  of  them  is 
stated,  and  which  sadly  retard  the  growing  excite- 
ment of  the  climax.  And  the  very  first  name  is 
Peirithous  the  Lapith,  this  being  a  verse  not  unlike 
the  one  that  we  struck  out  of  the  Catalogue,  and 
designed  to  confer  on  him  the  parentage  of  Zeus. 
So  that  if  we  remove  these  5  verses,  we  shall  have 
our  300  and  a  much  better  story.  But  here  a  hitch 
occurs.  For  there  is  another  verse  in  this  canto, 
verse  269,  which  possesses  slight  manuscript  autho- 
rity. It  names  Pasithea,  one  of  the  younger  Graces, 
whom  Hera  promises  to  Hypnus  as  a  reward  for 
putting  Zeus  to  sleep.  But  the  verse  is  repeated  7  lines 
lower  down,  where  Hypnus  mentions  the  particular 
one  of  the  younger  Graces  whom  he  wants,  which 
Hera  could  hardly  know  before,  and  from  this  posi- 
tion it  has  almost  certainly  been  foisted  in  above. 

And  here  the  reader  will  with  justice  wish  to 
know  whether  there  are  not  in  our  previous  cantos 
some  more  of  these  isolated  verses,  which  rest  upon 
little  manuscript  authority,  and  which  when  thrown 
out  would  reduce  our  number  below  the  300.  I 
will  answer  in  this  way.  Hitherto  our  rejection  of 
this  species  of  verse  has  included,  with  one  excep- 
tion, all  those  that  are  bracketed  in  the  Oxford  text 
of  the  late  Provost  of  Oriel,  a  man  of  the  most 
steady  judgment,  and  of  course  in  the  front  rank 


86       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

of  Homeric  scholars ;  so  that  if  there  are  any  other 
verses  which  can  fairly  be  impugned  on  the  ground 
of  insufficient  manuscript  authority  (but  I  do  not 
believe  that  there  are),  it  can  always  be  replied  that 
it  was  not  so  clear  to  this  excellent  critic  that  they 
ought  to  be  excised.  The  sole  exception  is  V  808, 
but  there  it  is  scarcely  a  question  of  manuscript 
authority ;  for  not  a  single  manuscript  omits  the 
verse.  It  was  omitted  by  Aristarchus,  but  re- 
tained by  Zenodotus,  a  critic  more  severe,  who  was 
always  cutting  out  verses  that  had  the  least  thing  to 
be  said  against  them.  And  one  of  Mr.  Monro's 
objections,  that  the  verse  is  repeated  at  IV  390,  we 
have  removed  by  cutting  out  the  story  of  Tydeus  in 
which  the  repetition  occurs.  And  his  other  objection 
is  not  well  founded.  For  Athene  there  narrates, 
that  when  Tydeus  had  run  into  a  difficulty  at  Thebes 
by  challenging  the  natives  counter  to  her  orders, 
still  she  came  to  the  rescue  and  pulled  him  out  of 
it ;  and  so  she  bids  his  son  Diomede  trust  to  her  aid 
now  when  she  urges  him  to  fight :  a  point  which  is 
not  seized  by  those  who  would  exclude  the  line. 
But,  for  the  rest,  our  excision  includes  all  the  verses 
excised  by  Mr.  Monro.  Nor  will  we  part  company 
from  him  here.  For  if  the  reader  will  look  again  at 
the  verses  which  I  labelled  alternate  above,  he  will 
see  that  the  expression  is  incorrect,  as  verses  324- 
325  are  consecutive.  The  son  of  Zeus  named  in  the 
first  of  those  two  verses  I  would  alone  retain,  and 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     87 

banish  all  the  rest,  who  are  Peirithous,  Perseus, 
Minos  and  Rhadamanthus,  and  Dionysus.  But  the 
other  is  Heracles,  one  of  the  few  heroes,  other  than 
those  who  figure  in  the  main  story,  whose  legend  is 
somewhat  copious  in  Homer.  And  he  has  been 
mentioned  just  above,  in  the  colloquy  of  Hera  and 
Hypnus,  where  the  timorous  Sleep  reminds  the  god- 
dess how  he  was  maltreated  by  Zeus,  when  he 
played  the  same  trick  on  him  before  at  Hera's 
bidding,  that  she  might  molest  Heracles.  And  we 
learn,  when  Zeus  wakes  up,  how  he  punished  Hera 
for  it  too.  Hence  it  is  like  his  spiteful  fun  to 
throw  in  the  name  of  Heracles,  as  he  does  the 
names  of  Hera's  feminine  rivals,  at  the  moment 
when  he  is  confessing  himself  her  slave.  And  it  all 
accords  with  what  the  poet  told  us  above,  that  Hera 
thought  Zeus  repulsive  at  present,  but  sacrificed  her 
feelings  to  her  care  about  the  Greeks.  And  Alc- 
mena  is  the  last  of  the  mortal  ladies  named,  so  that 
there  was  a  place  for  the  mention  of  Heracles  at  the 
end  of  the  list.  And  what  clinches  the  matter  is 
that  Zeus  speaks  of  himself  as  loving  Alcmena  in 
Thebes,  a  circumstance  which  he  puts  in  about  none 
of  the  rest,  and  which  must  be  meant  to  prepare  us 
for  the  notice  of  Heracles.  I  would  therefore  keep 
in  verse  324  and  throw  out  the  other  four,  which 
have  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter,  together 
with  the  wrong  one  about  Pasithea  above ;  and  this 
reduces  305  to  300  exact. 


88       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

Canto  XXVI  goes  on  from  the  wounding  of  Hector 
and  the  shortlived  recovery  of  the  Greeks,  which  is 
soon  arrested  by  Zeus  waking  up,  down  to  Book  XV 
217,  an  important  moment  when  Poseidon,  ordered 
off  the  field  by  Zeus,  under  protest  departs.  With 
the  next  canto  we  return  to  pick  up  Hector,  who  at 
a  like  command  of  Zeus  is  revived  by  Apollo.  The 
former  canto  causes  us  no  trouble.  It  has  exactly 
300  lines,  without  a  verse  subject  to  serious  charge. 
By  this  time,  methinks,  our  cumulative  proof  has 
begun  to  grow  crushing,  and  we  might  as  well  turn 
it  about,  and  claim  that  instead  of  our  theory  having 
to  conform  to  the  suspicions  of  scholars,  the  suspicions 
of  scholars  should  be  guided  by  it.  We  might  speak 
with  more  freedom  of  our  tercentenary  pause  as  a 
tercentenary  test.  But  we  will  not  do  this,  but  go 
steadily  on,  for  there  are  still  some  breakers  ahead. 

And  here  they  come  rolling  down  upon  us  in 
Canto  XXVII,  in  the  shape  of  185  verses,  which 
must  somehow  be  disproved;  for  the  pause  cannot 
well  be  placed  earlier  than  verse  702,  that  is  485 
lines  later,  after  which  things  go  smooth  for  a  space. 
The  Trojans,  in  the  previous  canto  driven  back  over 
the  trench,  are  in  the  present  one  rallied  by  Hector 
and  Apollo,  who  terrifies  the  Greeks  by  waving  an 
aegis,  as  in  the  canto  last  but  one  Poseidon  had  dis- 
mayed the  Trojans  by  wielding  a  terrible  sword. 
Some  retreating  Greeks  are  slain,  but  the  rest  plunge 
into  the  trench,  and  climb  up  and  out  behind  the 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     89 

Wall.  The  Trojans  follow ;  but  this  time  Apollo 
bids  Hector  order  his  horsemen  to  drive  the  chariots 
over,  and  undertakes  to  smooth  the  way  in  front. 
Hector  does  so,  and  down  charges  the  whole  array 
with  a  frightful  din,  Apollo  in  front  of  them  kicking 
the  dyke  within  the  ditch,  and  wrecking  the  Wall  like 
a  castle  of  sand.  And  so  the  Trojans  are  safely  over, 
and  burst  like  a  wave  at  the  sterns  of  the  ships. 
At  the  moment  of  their  assault  upon  the  Wall, 
Patroclus  leaves  the  tent  of  Eurypylus,  whose  wounds 
he  has  been  curing,  and  goes  to  inform  Achilles  of 
the  state  of  affairs  and  urge  him  to  fight.  Mean- 
time the  Greeks  are  mounted  on  their  ships,  and  try 
to  prevent  the  Trojans  getting  in  among  the  ships 
and  huts  with  long  poles  shod  with  bronze.  Neither 
side  gains  or  gives  an  inch ;  and  the  strict  tension  of 
the  fight,  with  the  Greeks  in  a  line  along  the  tops  of 
the  vessels,  and  the  Trojans  in  a  line  along  the  bottom, 
is  compared  in  an  accurate  simile  to  that  of  a  cord 
which  a  carpenter  employs  to  produce  a  straight  edge 
in  planing  off  a  ship's  plank.  Hector  goes  straight 
for  the  ship  on  which  Ajax  stands,  and  neither  can 
repulse  the  other,  but  Ajax  slays  Caletor,  the  cousin 
of  Hector,  who  is  bringing  a  firebrand.  Hector 
thereupon  exhorts  the  Trojans,  and  Ajax  exhorts 
the  Greeks.  The  Trojans  spring  at  the  ships  like 
ravening  lions.  Hector,  roused  by  Zeus,  who  knows 
that  his  end  is  approaching,  rages  like  a  fire  in  a 
forest,  making  a  bold  attempt  to  break  the  ranks. 


90       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

Then  three  moments  are  distinctly  marked  by  three 
successive  similes,  which  illustrate  the  phrases  iJiivov 
cfAireSov  and  eSat^ero  OvjULog  and  Oeanrea-icog  e(p6fit]0€y^ 
which  themselves  denote  the  successive  effects  of 
Hector's  fury  on  the  Greeks :  they  stand  firm,  they 
waver,  they  fly  in  stupid  terror.  Hector  is  delayed 
for  a  minute  by  killing  Periphetes,  son  of  Copreus, 
and  the  Greeks  rally  behind  the  first  rank  of  ships, 
before  the  first  row  of  huts.  Nestor  implores  them 
to  stand  fast ;  Athene  restores  them  to  their  senses ; 
and  so  they  take  cognizance  of  Hector  and  his  com- 
rades, both  those  in  the  rear  and  those  right  up  at 
the  ships.  Then  Ajax,  the  first  to  recover  his  full 
power  of  action,  rushes  forward  and  remounts  the 
decks  of  the  ships.  He  strides  across  the  gaps,  like 
a  rider  of  four  horses  at  a  show,  wielding  a  huge 
pike  and  yelling  to  his  comrades  to  save  the  ships 
and  huts.  Hector  on  his  side  dashes  forward  from 
the  Trojan  throng ;  the  rest  close  up  about  the 
chiefs;  and  again  the  battle  is  joined.  At  this 
moment  of  renewed  equilibrium  the  poet  gives  us 
the  sentiments  on  either  side,  the  Greek  despair  of 
final  safety,  the  Trojan  hopes  of  burning  the  ships 
and  slaying  the  Greeks.  And  there  the  canto  ends. 
With  the  opening  of  the  next,  Hector  lays  his  hand 
on  the  ship  of  Protesilaus. 

Such  I  conceive  to  be  the  true  outline  of  this  ex- 
citing passage  of  arms.  It  is  a  terrific  rush  on  the 
part  of  the  Trojans,  headed  by  Apollo,  which  is  only 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     91 

arrested  at  the  ships  ;  then  a  moment  of  sudden  panic 
on  the  part  of  the  Greeks,  caused  by  the  irresistible 
rage  of  Hector,  urged  on  by  Zeus ;  then  an  instant 
of  delay,  during  which  Athene  dispels  the  blindness 
of  their  terror,  and  the  situation  is  retrieved  by  the 
steadiness  of  Ajax.  But  it  is  wretchedly  disfigured 
by  the  intrusion  of  four  episodes  of  25  verses,  of  14 
verses,  of  67  verses,  and  of  77  verses  each,  which  in 
all  make  up  183;  the  remaining  2  verses  I  leave  for 
the  present.  The  first  comes  shortly  after  Hector 
has  been  revived  by  Apollo,  and  before  Apollo  has 
begun  waving  his  aegis  in  order  to  paralyse  the 
Greeks.  It  is  composed  of  a  panegyric  of  Thoas,  a 
very  subordinate  person,  and  a  piece  of  advice  on  his 
part,  to  draw  oiF  the  main  body  of  the  warriors  to 
the  ships,  while  the  leaders  stand  still  to  cover  their 
retreat.  The  chiefs  are  said  to  assent,  and  the  troops 
to  withdraw  to  the  ships.  But  in  the  very  next  para- 
graph we  are  told  that  the  Greeks  remained  all  massed 
together,  and  made  a  stout  resistance,  until  Apollo 
began  waving  his  aegis.  Dr.  Leaf  says  in  his  intro- 
duction:  "The  speech  of  Thoas,  281-305,  is  full 
of  difficulties,  which  are  pointed  out  in  the  notes.  .  .  . 
It  is  not  easy  to  see  what  was  the  reason  of  the  inter- 
polation, unless  it  may  have  been  desired  for  local  or 
family  reasons  to  bring  in  the  curious  eulogy  on  Thoas, 
who  at  once  disappears  from  the  scene,  together  with 
his  futile  tactical  advice."  Again  at  281  :  "The 
authenticity  of  the  following  passage,  to  305,  is  very 


92       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

doubtful.  The  plan  of  sending  the  troops  to  the 
rear  (295-299)  at  a  moment  when  it  would  seem  that 
every  nerve  should  be  strained  to  defend  the  wall  is 
quite  inexplicable.  Besides,  aoXXee?  (312),  Xao?  (319), 
and  the  similes  in  323  clearly  show  that  the  host  of 
the  Achaians  is  in  the  passage  immediately  following 
regarded  as  still  united.  The  phrase  used  in  284  is  not 
Homeric.  The  omission  of  the  F  of  FeKaarov  (288) 
cannot  be  remedied  by  conjecture,  and  avw^ofiev  (295) 
is  a  doubtful  form."  The  25  verses  281-305  I 
should  excise. 

The  second  passage  is  367-380,  when  the  Greeks 
stop  at  the  ships,  and  Nestor  is  said  to  uplift  a 
prayer  to  Zeus,  which  Zeus,  paying  heed  to  the  old 
man,  the  son  of  Neleus,  answers  with  a  loud  peal  of 
thunder.  And  what  is  the  result.'*  "But  the 
Trojans,  when  they  heard  the  thunder  of  Zeus, 
rushed  with  all  the  greater  fury  on  the  Greeks,  and 
recollected  their  might."  Little  wonder  that  Dr. 
Leaf  goes  on :  "  The  omen  of  the  thunder,  too, 
seems  to  miss  its  mark  and  produce  the  opposite 
effect  to  that  intended."  And  he  has  other  ob- 
jections to  the  passage,  with  which  I  need  not  weary 
the  reader.  The  14  verses  go  out  with  absolute 
ease,  they  forestall  the  appearance  of  Nestor  later 
on,  and  only  interrupt  the  Trojan  rush. 

And  now  we  come  to  another  highly  suspicious 
episode.  The  Greeks  are  massed  in  close  columns 
on  the  ships,  a  formation  naturally  imposed  on  them 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     93 

by  the  configuration  of  space  at  the  sterns.  The 
Trojans  are  beneath,  at  such  a  distance  as  may  be 
measured  by  the  length  of  pikes  shod  with  bronze, 
which  are  raised  to  keep  them  off.  The  tension  is 
strict ;  and  Hector  and  Ajax  are  almost  hand  to 
hand.  Ajax  slays  Caletor,  the  cousin  of  Hector; 
and  Hector  thereupon  exhorts  the  Trojans  to  save 
his  body,  lest  the  Greeks  strip  it  of  its  arms.  He 
himself  slays  Lycophron,  the  squire  of  Ajax ;  and 
Ajax  thereupon  invites  Teucer  to  avenge  their 
common  friend.  And  now  the  whole  strain  of  the 
fight  is  relaxed  as  if  by  magic,  in  order  to  make 
room  for  Teucer  and  his  arrows.  Teucer  is  said  to 
run  up  and  stand  close  beside  his  brother  Ajax,  with 
his  bow  and  quiver  in  his  hands.  His  arrows  play 
merrily  among  the  Trojans,  and  he  manages  to  hit 
Cleitus  at  this  range,  but  quite  misses  Hector, 
thanks  to  Zeus,  who  breaks  his  bowstring  and 
knocks  the  bow  out  of  his  hand.  Ajax  mildly 
advises  him  to  let  his  bow  alone  and  take  to  his  spear. 
Teucer  withdraws  to  his  tent  to  fetch  his  helmet, 
shield,  and  spear,  though  he  seems  to  have  had 
them  all  with  him  at  XII  371-372,  where  Pandion 
has  to  carry  his  bow,  and  at  XIII  1 70-1 81,  where  he 
kills  Imbrius  with  his  spear ;  and  again  runs  up  and 
stands  beside  his  brother.  Hector,  encouraged  by  the 
failure  of  Teucer's  archery,  again  exhorts  the  Trojans ; 
and  all  things  are  back  where  they  were  before,  much 
as  if  Teucer  and  his  arrows  had  never  appeared. 


94       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

This  episode  I  believe  to  be  spurious,  chiefly 
because  it  halts  between  two  conflicting  conceptions ; 
that  of  a  fight  at  close  quarters  from  the  ships,  and 
that  of  a  fight  at  long  range  upon  the  plain.  There 
could  be  no  room  for  Teucer  to  run  about  so  freely 
as  he  is  said  to  do,  in  the  dense  situation  of  the 
Greeks,  without  giving  the  Trojans  just  the  opening 
that  they  want.  And  if  so  uncertain  a  missile  as  an 
arrow  were  used  at  this  short  distance,  in  preference 
to  a  javelin  or  spear  or  pike,  which  are  much  more 
certain  and  effectual  weapons,  yet  the  presence  of 
an  unarmed  archer  is  absurd ;  for  he  would  be 
slaughtered  off^  in  an  instant  by  the  cast  of  a  spear, 
as  befalls  the  panoplied  Caletor.  Then,  near  about 
the  point  where  Teucer  comes  in,  there  is  an  incon- 
sistency with  another  part  of  the  poem.  At  verse 
437  Ajax  says  to  his  brother,  "  My  Teucer,  our 
trusty  comrade  Lycophron  is  slain,  whom  we 
honoured  like  to  our  dear  parents  "  ;  which  is  always 
taken  to  imply  that  the  parents  of  Ajax  and  Teucer 
are  the  same.  For  there  is  no  distributive  word  to 
mark  the  difference,  but  the  dual  is  used  to  unite 
the  brothers  more  closely.  But  Ajax  was  a  legitimate 
son  of  Telamon,  and  Teucer  a  bastard,  as  is  stated 
in  Book  VIII  284;  and  the  mother  of  one  was 
Eriboea,  but  of  the  other  Hesione.  So  that  the  little 
episode  designed  for  the  glory  of  Teucer,  of  whorn 
we  heard  quite  enough  for  his  importance  in  the 
Eighth  Book,  is  probably  false.    And  now  the  question 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     95 

is  where  to  fix  the  limits  of  this  interpolation.  I 
believe  that  the  beginning  falls  within  the  first 
exhortation  of  Hector,  on  seeing  his  cousin  Caletor 
slain,  and  the  end  within  his  second  exhortation, 
after  the  failure  of  Teucer's  archery ;  and  that 
the  latter  part  of  the  last  should  be  joined  to  the 
former  part  of  the  first,  following  on  after  verse  426 
with  the  words  aWa  yua^eo-^'  CTri  vtjvarlv  aoXXee?  in 
verse  494,  instead  of  aXX'  via  KXvrloio  crawareTe. 
What  Hector  says,  on  seeing  his  cousin  slain,  I 
take  to  be  this :  "  Trojans  and  Lycians  and  Dar- 
danians,  do  not  yet  give  way  in  this  terrible  strait, 
but  fight  all  together  up  to  the  ships ;  and  whoever 
of  you  is  wounded  or  struck  to  the  death,  there  let 
him  die !  It  is  no  disgrace  for  a  man  to  die  in 
defending  his  country ;  but  his  wife  and  his  children 
will  be  safe  hereafter,  and  his  house  and  his  heritage 
stand  unimpaired,  if  the  Greeks  be  got  back  to  their 
own  native  land."  You  see  how  Hector  is  justified 
in  giving  this  severe  admonition  to  the  rest  by  the 
fact  that  his  own  cousin  is  the  first  to  suffer  by  it. 
And  it  fits  in  very  well  with  his  previous  announce- 
ment, in  verses  347-351,  that  he  will  kill  on  the 
spot  any  man  whom  he  sees  going  aside  to  pick  up 
the  spoils,  instead  of  pressing  hastily  on  to  the  ships. 
What  the  interpolator  makes  him  say  is  just  the 
reverse  :  "Do  not  yet  give  way  in  this  terrible  strait, 
but  save  the  corpse  of  Caletor,  lest  the  Greeks  strip 
off  his  armour  amongst  the   ships " ;  an  action  of 


96       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

which  there  could  be  no  likelihood  at  present,  for  it 
is  expressly  stated  that  Caletor  falls  down  below. 
He  thus  perverts  the  supreme  patriotic  aim  of 
Hector  into  a  project  of  selfish  and  secondary- 
interest,  and  so  passes  on  to  the  episode  of  Teucer. 
This  I  consider  to  be  depravation  of  the  original 
poet's  idea ;  and  the  67  verses  that  lie  between  the 
first  and  second  aWd  I  should  cashier. 

Our  last  large  passage  is  5 1 5-591 .  This  is  not  so 
bad  a  passage  in  itself,  but  is  fairly  described  by  Dr. 
Leaf  as  "  rather  commonplace  and  entirely  without 
significance  in  the  story."  But  the  fatal  objection  to 
it,  in  its  present  context,  is  that  it  is  an  ordinary 
fight  on  level  ground,  which  contradicts  the  whole 
situation.  The  Greeks  are  conceived  as  a  line  of 
armed  men  posted  before  the  ships.  There  are  the 
regular  front  rank  fighters,  with  the  heroes  who 
spring  out  before  the  front  rank,  and  then  retire 
after  doing  execution ;  which  in  the  situation  before 
imagined  would  bring  them  toppling  off  the  sterns. 
And  there  is  stripping  off  of  armour,  an  action  for- 
bidden on  pain  of  death  by  Hector  on  the  Trojan 
side,  and  impossible  for  reasons  of  urgency  and  posi- 
tion on  the  Greek.  Then  we  are  occupied  with 
a  totally  new  band  of  minor  heroes,  Otus,  Dolops, 
Croesmus,  and  Melanippus,  who  are  killed  off  with- 
out any  preparation.  But  if  the  reader  will  take  the 
pains  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  the  lesser  heroes  from 
the  Twelfth  Book  down  to  this  point  in  the  Fifteenth 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     97 

he  will  find  that  they  are  hardly  ever  killed  without 
some  little  introduction  higher  up.  I  verily  believe 
that  the  only  men  in  the  whole  of  this  stretch  who 
are  brought  in  and  killed  at  once,  if  we  except 
Harpalion,  are  that  same  Peisander  over  whom 
Menelaus  uttered  his  striking  speech,  and  Caletor, 
the  cousin  of  Hector ;  both  which  cases  are  excused 
by  the  interest,  not  of  the  men  themselves,  but  of 
that  which  their  deaths  occasion.  And  just  at  the 
point  where  these  new  worthies  come  on,  new  difficul- 
ties arise.  For  Schedius,  the  leader  of  the  Phocians 
slain  by  Hector,  is  in  the  very  first  verse  called  the 
son  of  Perimedes,  whereas  in  Book  II  518  he  is 
called  the  son  of  Iphitus,  if  the  same  man  be 
meant,  as  at  first  seems  not  unlikely.  And  yet  he 
cannot  be  the  same  man,  for  Schedius,  son  of 
Iphitus,  is  slain  by  Hector  at  XVII  306  ;  so  that 
either  the  Catalogue  is  deficient  of  this  second 
Schedius,  which  is  improbable  if  he  was  a  genuine 
leader  of  Phocians,  or  else  the  present  passage  is 
spurious.  And  here  again  Meges  is  evidently  a 
leader  of  Epeians,  as  in  the  spurious  passage  excised 
from  Book  XIII.  Cut  out  the  whole  of  this  con- 
tradictory episode,  and  the  narrative  goes  far  better. 
For  after  the  stirring  address  of  Hector  has  been 
met  by  an  equally  stirring  address  of  Ajax,  instead  of 
this  somewhat  tame  and  tedious  fight,  the  Trojans 
spring  like  lions  at  the  ships ;  a  comparison  which 
shows  that  the  old  position  is  now  correctly  conceived, 

G 


98       COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

with  the  Greeks  above  and  the  Trojans  below,  and 
all  is  clear  to  the  end  of  the  canto.  And  Dr.  Leaf 
is  of  much  the  same  opinion  as  myself,  though  he 
has  not  the  same  motive  as  myself  for  holding  it. 

Now  as  to  our  remaining  2  verses  I  confess  that 
I  am  exceedingly  doubtful ;  but  I  am  inclined  to 
single  out  verses  504-505  in  the  exhortation  of  Ajax. 
For  if  the  reader  will  look  at  them,  he  will  see  that 
they  have  some  appearance  of  being  an  alternative  to 
the  two  which  succeed,  both  pairs  being  couched  in 
the  form  of  a  sarcastic  rhetorical  question,  either  of 
which  would  do  just  as  well  if  the  other  were  away. 
But  there  is  this  difference,  that  the  second  distich 
leads  on  directly  to  what  follows,  whereas  the  first  is 
left  without  development.  Then  the  first  couplet 
contains  an  immedicable  violation  of  the  digamma  in 
cKaoTTog.  And  the  sense  of  it  is  this :  "  Do  you 
expect,  if  Hector  destroys  the  ships,  to  return  on 
foot  each  to  his  native  land  ?  "  But  this  so  much 
resembles  the  saying  of  Telemachus  in  the  Odyssey, 
"  For  I  suppose  that  you  have  not  come  to  this 
island  on  foot,"  as  to  create  a  suspicion  of  its  being 
more  humorous  than  the  present  crisis  admits,  and 
of  its  having  been  put  in  by  somebody  who  liked  the 
joke,  and  who  saw  a  chance  of  repeating  it.  Fick 
goes  so  far  as  to  call  the  couplet  "  absurd." 

But  almost  every  other  verse  in  this  much 
challenged  portion  of  the  Fifteenth  Book  I  would 
most  stubbornly  defend.    And  I  say  so,  because  there 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH     99 

are  two  short  passages  toward  the  end  of  the  canto, 
which  it  seems  to  me  that  Dr.  Leaf  and  Dr.  Hentze 
surrender  far  too  readily  to  the  objections  of  the 
Alexandrian  scholars,  whose  imagination  was  not 
always  in  a  measure  with  their  acumen.  The  first  of 
them  is  610-614,  where  Dr.  Leaf  says  that  the 
addition  of  "E/ctojoo?  is  quite  needless.  But  not  so, 
when  Hector  fighting  is  distinguished  from  Hector's 
tossing  helm,  as  cause  from  effect,  much  as  in  I  46- 
47  the  moving  Apollo  is  distinguished  from  the 
rattling  quiver  on  Apollo's  shoulders.  Then  he  says 
that  Zeus  is  on  Ida,  not  eV  aiOepi.  But  is  not  the  top  of 
Ida  ev  aiOepi  too  ?  Again  he  says  that  julovvov  eovra  is 
a  strange  expression,  as  Hector  has  his  whole  army 
with  him.  But  to  these  words  the  poet  joins  irXeovea-a-i 
/jl€t'  ai/Spda-i  and  r/yua  Koi  KvSaive,  and  the  Special  point 
is  that,  although  Hector  has  his  whole  army  with 
him,  yet  Zeus  reserves  the  glory  of  firing  the  ships 
to  this  one  single  man  among  them  all.  Finally  he 
says  that  the  prophecy  in  613  is  against  the  usual 
practice,  and  that  it  is  a  departure  from  the  accepted 
theology  to  make  Athene  carry  out  the  work  of  fate. 
What  is  here  termed  a  prophecy  is  the  statement  that 
Hector's  hour  of  death  was  drawing  nigh,  at  the 
hands  of  the  son  of  Peleus,  brought  about  by  Pallas 
Athene ;  which  is  the  reason  why  Zeus  gave  him  so 
much  honour  in  the  present.  But  I  deny  that  the 
poet  does  not  often  state  things  by  anticipation ;  for 
he  does  it  again  and  again,  in  instances  too  numerous 


loo     COMPOSITION   OF  THE  ILIAD 

to  mention.  And  whatever  the  accepted  theology 
may  be,  certain  it  is  that  Athene  brings  about  the 
death  of  Hector  at  the  close;  so  that  here  is  a 
departure  from  it  too.  And  the  verses  are  defended 
by  the  letter  M  itself,  which  unites  them  in  one 
music  with  the  context. 

The  other  passage  is  668-673,  where  Athene 
is  said  to  disperse  the  vecpos  a')(\vo9  Qea-irea-iov  from 
the  eyes  of  the  Greeks.  Now  if  the  phrase  be  taken 
to  mean  a  darkening  of  the  sky,  or  an  atmospheric 
mist,  or  anything  else  of  the  sort,  as  the  Alexandrian 
critics  took  it,  it  is  certainly  surprising,  for  no  such 
thing  has  been  described  as  coming  on.  But  it  is  the 
hebetude  of  vision  caused  by  mortal  terror,  as  the 
words  air  6(p6aX/uLwv  sufficiently  show ;  and  it  corre- 
sponds with  our  metaphor  of  a  blind  panic.  And  the 
same  thing  is  shown  by  Oearirea-iov,  which  connects 
the  phrase  directly  with  Oea-irea-lm  ecpo^rjOev  in  verse 
637,  and  intimates  that  the  man  is  no  longer  master 
of  himself,  but  is  the  sport  of  an  instinct  too  power- 
ful for  his  will  to  control.  So  in  Book  V  127 
Athene  removes  the  mortal  hebetude  (a-)(Xvi/)  from 
Diomede's  eyes,  whereby  he  is  enabled  to  behold 
those  that  are  immortal.  And  so  in  Book  XX  321- 
342  Poseidon  sheds  on  Achilles'  eyes  a  marvellous 
mist  {oi-)(\vv  OearTrea-irjv),  that  he  may  not  see  Aeneas 
swept  away,  and  then  disperses  it  again.  And  the 
word  (ppdcra-avTo^  "  marked,"  signifies  of  itself  that 
they  have  come  to  their  senses  out  of  the  dazed  con- 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTfik^ftHf '  i&i 

dition  that  they  were  in  before.  And  it  all  fits  in 
with  the  permission  of  Zeus  at  VIII  35-40,  that 
Athene  may  influence  the  minds  of  the  Greeks, 
though  she  must  not  herself  take  part  in  the  fight : 
which  answers  an  objection  recorded  by  the  Scholiast, 
that  Athene  is  not  present  owing  to  the  threat  of  Zeus; 
for  a  mental  operation  may  be  done  at  a  distance,  as 
we  learn  from  XV  242  and  XVI  103.  And  as  to  the 
last  two  verses,  they  seem  to  be  merely  misconstrued. 
For  they  are  made  to  refer  to  the  Greeks,  part  of 
whom  stand  aloof  in  the  rear,  and  part  right  up  at  the 
ships;  which  of  course  contradicts  verse  638,  where 
we  hear  that  they  fled  one  and  all.  But  they  refer 
to  the  comrades  of  Hector,  part  of  whom  stand  up 
beside  their  leader,  and  part  of  whom  stand  ofi^ 
behind  for  want  of  room ;  as  the  order  of  words 
alone  declares.  And  when  the  poet  applies  the  same 
word  a(p€(rTaarav  to  the  Greeks,  as  he  does  in  the 
next  paragraph,  he  is  careful  to  specify  their  name. 
And  having  applied  the  word  to  each  in  turn,  he 
applies  the  words  c^eVrao-ai/  aX\i]\oia-iv  to  both  at 
verse  703,  when  the  fury  of  the  combat  is  renewed. 
And  so  much  for  Canto  XXVII. 

Canto  XXVIII  extends  down  to  Book  XVI  256, 
which  is  the  moment  when  Achilles,  having  offered 
up  a  solemn  prayer  for  the  safety  of  Patroclus  and 
poured  a  libation  to  Zeus,  takes  his  stand  before  the 
tent  to  survey  the  progress  of  the  fight.  The  pause 
is  not   well    marked    in   the    Teubner   text,   which 


idi     COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

puts  a  colon  only  here ;  but  is  well  marked  by 
Mr.  Monro,  who  closes  the  sentence  with  a  full 
stop  after  this  verse,  and  opens  a  new  paragraph 
with  the  next ;  as  though  an  instinct  taught  him  that 
here  the  Prowess  of  Patroclus  begins.  On  the  other 
hand,  Dr.  Hentze  has  the  advantage  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  canto,  where  he  opens  with  a 
new  paragraph,  while  Mr.  Monro  has  only  the 
full  stop.  The  canto,  which  is  chiefly  taken  up  with 
the  interview  of  Achilles  and  Patroclus,  and  the 
mustering  of  the  Myrmidons,  has  exactly  300  lines ; 
which  makes  us  some  amends  for  the  long  time  we 
tarried  on  the  last. 

The  Patrocleia  occupies  the  rest  of  the  Sixteenth 
Book,  and  contains  611  lines.  The  pause  we  place 
after  verse  562,  which  leaves  306  verses  on  one  side 
and  305  on  the  other.  This  is  the  moment  when 
the  career  of  Patroclus  has  been  crowned  by  the 
slaying  of  Sarpedon,  and  both  sides  brace  them- 
selves afresh  at  the  prospect  of  a  struggle  over  his 
body.  The  remainder  of  the  book  is  occupied  with 
the  final  exploits  of  Patroclus  down  to  his  death  at 
the  hands  of  Hector  and  Apollo.  Now  beginning 
in  due  order  with  Canto  XXIX,  we  meet  with  a 
verse  which  all  texts  bracket.  It  is  381,  which 
describes  the  horses  of  Achilles  as  immortal,  and  as 
given  to  Peleus  by  the  gods.  It  is  repeated  in  the 
last  line  of  the  book,  whence  it  has  been  inserted 
here  to  correct  a  slight  ambiguity  between  the  Trojan 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH    103 

horses  and  those  of  Achilles,  which  Patroclus  uses ; 
but  many  manuscripts  omit  it  altogether.  The  other 
5  verses  I  take  to  be  367-371.  For  they  contain 
a  plain  contradiction  of  one  4  lines  higher  up,  in 
which  we  were  told  that  Hector,  although  he  knew 
the  tide  of  battle  had  turned,  yet  stood  his  ground 
and  sought  to  save  his  comrades.  But  here  we  are 
told  that  Hector's  horses  swept  himself  and  his 
armour  swiftly  away,  so  that  he  forsook  the  Trojan 
host  that  was  checked  by  the  deep  trench ;  which  is 
quite  unlike  his  character.  Then  it  is  difficult  to 
see  why  the  footmen  are  impeded  by  the  trench, 
when  Hector  and  his  horses  get  so  quickly  over ;  and 
this  overlooks  all  about  Apollo's  filling  up  the  trench. 
And  in  the  very  first  words  there  is  a  strange  ex- 
pression, where  it  is  said  that  they  did  not  cross 
back  Kara  /noipav,  which  is  meant  for  Kara  kog-julov^ 
but  is  not  so  used  elsewhere.  And  in  the  very  last 
words  there  occurs  a  monstrous  violation  of  the 
digamma  in  dp/tAar  avwcTcov,  of  which  there  is  no 
probable  cure.  I  should  therefore  put  a  period 
after  (po^og  re  in  verse  366,  and  drop  these  lines, 
which  make  no  difference.  But  I  do  not  consider 
the  preceding  simile  obscure,  as  it  appears  to  Dr. 
Leaf;  for  the  shrieking  and  flight  of  the  Trojans 
are  aptly  compared  to  a  howling  tempest  that  in- 
vades a  sky  serene. 

So  now  we  come  to  Canto  XXX,  which  has   5 
lines  over  our  limit.     But  two  pair  of  these   arc 


I04     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

already  marked  out  for  us  by  brackets  in  all  the 
texts.  The  first  pair  is  614-615,  which  say  that  the 
spear  of  Aeneas  spent  its  force  by  quivering  in  the 
ground,  after  it  had  left  his  hand  in  vain.  But  it  is 
repeated  from  XIII  504-505,  and  much  the  same 
thing  has  been  told  us  in  the  verse  above  ;  and  a 
vast  majority  of  manuscripts  omit  the  lines.  The 
second  is  689-690,  of  which  I  suppress  the  sense,  for 
here  they  have  none,  but  are  copied  from  XVII 
177-178.  So  much  for  4  of  our  5  verses.  Now 
at  verse  736,  in  the  combat  of  Hector  and  Patroclus, 
we  are  told  that  Patroclus  seized  up  a  stone  and 
hurled  it  with  all  his  weight,  ovSe  Srjv  d^ero  cpwrog, 
which  cannot  be  construed.  For  dl^oniai  always 
governs  an  accusative,  and  expresses  a  sense  of 
religious  awe,  so  that  Dr.  Leaf  makes  it  mean  that 
Patroclus  did  not  long  stand  in  awe  of  Apollo 
because  of  Hector;  which  is  very  forced  and  ob- 
scure, there  being  no  mention  of  Apollo  in  the 
sentence.  Nor  is  the  conjecture  of  X"^^'^^  much 
better,  for  it  ought  to  mean  that  he  did  not  long 
withdraw  from  his  man ;  which  is  absurd,  when 
Patroclus  has  been  rushing  at  Hector  for  3  lines  past. 
And  it  does  not  appear  that  either  of  these  senses 
makes  a  proper  opposition  to  the  words  that  come 
next.  If  we  could  correct  Srjv  d'^cro  into  something 
which  would  import  "  nor  did  he  hit  his  man,"  then 
ovS'  a\l(jocre  fieXos  would  follow  very  well ;  for  he  misses 
Hector,  but  hits  Cebriones  his  charioteer.     But  I  do 


BOOK  NINTH  TO  BOOK  SIXTEENTH    105 

not  see  how  this  can  be  done,  and  incline  to  think 
that  the  phrase  is  false.  But  the  first  part  of  the 
verse,  $/ce  S'  epeKrd/iievogf  seems  to  be  sound.  Again 
it  is  doubtful  whether  ovS'  oXlooa-e  /SeXo?  is  a  correct 
expression.  You  can  talk  of  frustrating  the  inten- 
tion of  Zeus,  as  is  done  in  Odyss.  V  104  and  138 
Aio?  voov  aXicoa-ai.  And  a  man  may  frustrate  his 
own  word,  by  not  doing  as  he  said,  as  in  Sophocl. 
Trach.  258,  Kov-x^^Xlcoa-e  tovtto^.  But  how  a  man  can 
be  said  to  frustrate  his  own  shot,  when  the  stone  has 
left  his  hand,  is  not  so  clear.  I  should  therefore  be 
disposed  to  join  the  first  part  of  the  one  verse  on  to 
the  last  part  of  the  other, 

^K€.  8'  ep€i(rdfji£vos,  pdki  5'  "Ekto/oos  ijvtox^a, 

leaving  out  what  lies  between.  But  I  am  not  quite 
satisfied  with  this ;  and  perhaps  somebody  will  be 
able  to  clear  up  these  difficulties  and  to  point  out 
a  still  more  objectionable  line.  And  so,  with  the 
death  of  Patroclus,  we  finish  off  another  third  part  of 
the  Iliad. 


CHAPTER   III 

BOOK  THE   SEVENTEENTH   TO   BOOK  THE 
TWENTY-FOURTH 

The  opening  of  Canto  XXXI  coincides  with  that 
of  the  Seventeenth  Book,  and  here  begins  the 
Prowess  of  Menelaus ;  some  little  delay  being  in- 
terposed between  the  death  of  Patroclus  and  the 
carrying  of  the  news  to  Achilles.  The  break  we 
find  at  verse  455,  which  seems  a  long  way  off. 
But  it  is  surely  a  strange  thing  that  you  can  go 
on  from  vpx^  <^*  ^V  "^'^'^f^p  in  107  to  the  self- 
same words  in  262,  which  makes  exactly  155  lines, 
and  discover  an  excellent  pause  at  the  verse  said 
above.  For  with  it  Zeus  concludes  his  famous 
speech  to  the  ageless  and  deathless  horses  of  Achilles ; 
and  off  they  move  at  the  beginning  of  the  next 
canto,  with  Automedon  behind  them,  whose  business 
occupies  us  some  little  while  after.  And  the  ex- 
cluded verses  are  so  full  of  difficulties  that  one 
hardly  knows  where  to  strike  in.  But,  to  make 
an  effort,  there  are  three  matters  which  about  this 
point  the  poet  asks  his  hearers  to  understand, 
without  express  mention,  though  he  has  sufficiently 

intimated  them  all.     The  first  thing  is  that  Hector 

106 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR     107 

now  wears  the  arms  of  Achilles,  worn  by  Patroclus. 
This  was  intimated  at  Book  XVI  799-800,  where 
it  was  said  that  Zeus  gave  him  at  that  time  to 
wear  on  his  head  the  helmet  of  Achilles,  but  his 
death  was  nigh  at  hand ;  and  Hector  might  easily 
put  it  on,  together  with  the  rest  of  the  arms, 
somewhere  between  Book  XVII  274,  where  the 
Trojans  repulse  the  Greeks  from  the  corpse  of 
Patroclus,  and  XVII  450,  where  Zeus  says  that 
he  has  them,  or  again  XVII  473,  where  he  is 
explicitly  said  to  have  them  on.  But  before  the 
verse  first  named,  as  I  conceive  the  matter,  he 
could  hardly  have  done  so;  for  he  is  engaged  in 
pursuing  the  immortal  horses,  and  meanwhile  at 
XVII  13  the  spoils,  though  possibly  not  the  helmet, 
are  regarded  as  still  lying  near  by  the  body  of 
Patroclus.  The  second  thing  left  to  us  to  gather 
is  the  reason  why  the  Trojans  struggle  with  the 
Greeks  to  possess  the  unarmed  body  of  Patroclus. 
But  it  is  sufficiently  implied  by  touching  on  the 
glory  of  the  thing  itself  at  XVII  287,  and  on 
the  value  of  the  body  to  Achilles  at  XVII  104 
and  elsewhere,  and  we  may  imagine  that  it  would 
command  a  very  fair  ransom  if  carried  safe  to 
Troy.  And  the  third  thing  is  the  withdrawal  of 
Menelaus  in  quest  of  Ajax,  to  help  him  in  re- 
covering the  body  of  Patroclus;  which  is  con- 
veyed by  the  words  of  Menelaus  himself  at  XVII 
102-105,  but   is   not  explicitly  described,   because 


io8     COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

the  poet  has  to  describe  a  similar  withdrawal  later 
on,  in  quest  of  Antilochus,  who  is  to  carry  the 
news  to  Achilles.  And  there  he  does  it  at  length, 
using  the  simile  of  the  lion,  which  we  came  across 
in  treating  of  the  Eleventh  Book;  but  here  he 
marks  his  absence  by  a  short  and  successful  dash 
of  the  Trojans  at  XVII  263-277,  until  the  Greeks 
are  rallied  by  Ajax  at  278,  which  shows  that 
Menelaus  has  found  his  man,  whose  influence  now 
begins  to  tell.  Well,  these  three  things  the  in- 
terpolator explains  at  large  in  the  155  verses;  and 
in  each  case  he  has  involved  both  himself  and 
us  in  difficulties  by  doing  it. 

We  will  begin,  as  he  begins,  with  the  last.  At 
verse  108  he  describes  the  withdrawal  of  Menelaus 
and  his  meeting  with  Ajax,  when  the  first  invites 
the  last  to  proffer  the  corpse  of  Patroclus  to 
Achilles,  since  it  is  all  that  they  can  do,  now 
that  Hector  has  his  arms.  Very  good.  But  then, 
in  the  next  paragraph,  we  are  told  that  when 
Hector  has  stripped  Patroclus  of  his  arms,  he 
drags  his  body ;  which  ought  to  have  come  first, 
if  it  came  at  all,  before  the  departure  of  Menelaus, 
so  that  Menelaus  could  know  for  certain  that 
Hector  had  the  arms.  But  it  ought  not  to  come 
at  all,  for  Patroclus  was  divested  of  all  his  armour 
long  ago  by  Apollo,  at  the  time  of  his  slaying 
by  Hector  in  the  last  book ;  and  without  reclothing 
a   corpse   you    cannot   strip    it    twice.     And    again 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    109 

at  verse  205  of  this  spurious  passage  Zeus  is 
made  to  say  that  Hector  took  the  arms  from  the 
head  and  the  shoulders  of  Patroclus,  which  was  all 
done  by  Apollo  in  Book  XVI ;  from  the  head 
at  verse  793,  and  from  the  shoulders  at  verse  802, 
as  our  faithful  editor  notes. 

Well,  Hector  having  taken  off  the  arms,  as 
here  supposed,  gives  them  to  his  comrades  to  carry 
away  to  Troy.  Then  follows  an  unpleasant  scene 
between  Glaucus  and  himself,  in  which  Glaucus, 
using  some  uncouth  and  unparalleled  phrases,  calls 
him  a  coward,  warns  him  that  the  Lycians  have 
no  interest  in  the  war,  upbraids  him  for  abandoning 
the  body  of  Sarpedon  to  the  Greeks,  threatens  the 
departure  of  the  Lycian  troops,  and  enlarges  on 
the  advantage  of  bringing  the  body  of  Patroclus 
into  Troy,  in  order  to  effect  an  exchange  with 
the  body  and  the  arms  of  Sarpedon.  This  was 
designed  to  meet  the  second  thing  understood, 
why  they  should  struggle  for  the  naked  body  of 
Patroclus ;  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Sarpedon's 
corpse  was  rescued  at  Book  XVI  678-683  by 
Apollo,  at  the  bidding  of  Zeus,  and  long  ago 
despatched  to  Lycia  by  the  hands  of  Sleep  and 
Death ;  which  if  Glaucus  could  not  be  expected  to 
know,  yet  it  is  silly  of  the  author  to  try  to  arouse 
our  interest  about  a  project  which,  as  we  foresee, 
can  never  be  accomplished.  And  the  whole  tone 
of  this  speech  quite  spoils  the  delightful  character 


no     COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

of  Glaucus ;  nor  is  it  very  fit  to  be  spoken  to  Hector, 
who  has  slain  the  man  who  slew  Sarpedon. 

However,  Hector  rudely  defends  himself,  and 
bids  Glaucus  stand  at  his  side  and  watch  whether 
he  is  a  coward  or  not.  And  then  what  happens? 
But  here  the  words  of  an  ancient  critic  are  better 
than  mine.  "  One  would  have  expected,"  says  the 
Scholiast,  "  that  after  being  so  taken  aback  by  the 
utterance,  and  so  moved  at  the  incident,  he  would 
abide  by  his  own  professions.  But  he  forgets  the 
words  he  has  used  himself,  and  overlooks  the  taunts, 
and  turns  to  tricking  himself  out "  ;  which  refers  to 
the  fact  that,  instead  of  entering  the  battle,  the 
thought  occurs  to  him  to  leave  the  field  and  apparel 
himself  in  those  same  arms  which,  even  before  the 
stinging  taunt  of  Glaucus,  he  was  quite  content  to 
send  away  to  Troy.  This  was  intended  to  meet  the 
first  thing  understood,  that  Hector  wears  the  arms. 
As  he  puts  them  on,  Zeus  makes  a  speech  about 
him,  which  weakly  anticipates  part  of  his  speech  to 
the  horses,  and  then  nods  (as  Dr.  Leaf  observes)  all 
to  himself.  Hector  reappears  for  a  moment  to  the 
renowned  allies,  shining  in  the  arms  of  Achilles; 
and  after  all  the  long  rigmarole  about  the  donning 
of  the  armour,  not  a  word  is  said  of  its  effect  on 
Greek  or  Trojan.  And  the  mighty  strength,  which 
Zeus  is  made  to  say  that  he  will  bestow  on  him, 
melts  into  nothing;  for  the  Greeks  succeed  in 
drawing  off  the  body  of  Patroclus  after  all. 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    iii 

There  never  was  such  nonsense  as  the  whole  of 
this  passage  contains,  and  it  has  oddities  of  diction 
all  the  way  through,  with  which  I  do  not  trouble 
the  reader,  but  which  are  faithfully  recorded  by  Dr. 
Leaf.  But  just  to  mark  the  latter  end  of  the  inter- 
polation, there  is  a  bad  violation  of  the  digamma  in 
ovvo/maT  eliroi  of  verse  260,  and  one  in  cKaa-ro^  at 
252.  And  its  lapses  disgust  the  reader  at  the  out- 
set with  what  is  in  the  sequel  one  of  the  most 
glorious  struggles  in  the  whole  of  the  Iliad,  waged 
about  the  body  of  Patroclus.  There  is  only  one 
thing  that  I  regret  in  cutting  out  these  155  lines, 
and  not  so  much  on  my  own  account  as  that  of 
another.  We  cut  out  the  simile  in  133-137,  where 
Ajax  is  compared  to  a  lion  whom  huntsmen  meet 
leading  along  his  cubs,  who  glares  in  his  strength  and 
draws  down  all  the  skin  of  his  forehead,  covering  up 
his  eyes ;  which  the  late  Sir  Richard  Jebb  thought 
perhaps  the  finest  of  Homeric  similes  drawn  from 
the  lion,  though  the  ancients  found  it  false  to 
nature,  because  it  is  the  lioness,  and  not  the  lion, 
who  leads  the  cubs  along.  And  there  is  another 
simile  borrowed  from  the  lion  in  Book  XX  164— 
175,  which  has  been  thought  the  finest  Homeric 
simile  of  all.  Hitherto  we  have  happened  to  include 
within  our  scheme  most  of  the  fine  and  famous 
things  in  Homer,  except  the  popular  tales  which  are 
of  a  totally  different  type ;  but  the  cut  is  too  clear, 
from   ?jOx^  to   vpx^y  to  permit  this  simile  to  stay. 


112     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

And  it  may  comfort  us  to  find  that  our  excision 
ends  immediately  before  the  simile  of  a  river  meet- 
ing with  the  sea,  which  caused  Solon  or  else  Plato  to 
burn  his  poems  in  despair. 

Now  the  results  of  this  imposthume  wake  in  one 
a  pain.  For  instead  of  its  being  excised  as  incon- 
sistent with  other  things  in  the  Iliad,  other  things  in 
the  Iliad  have  been  questioned  as  inconsistent  with 
it.  As  Hector  here  strips  off  the  armour,  which  is 
not  consistent  with  ApoUo^s  doing  it  before,  it  has 
been  argued  that  the  whole  notion  of  Patroclus 
wearing  and  losing  the  arms  of  Achilles  was  no  part 
of  the  original  poet's  scheme,  but  was  invented  by 
another  hand,  in  order  to  introduce  the  episode  of 
the  Forging  of  the  Armour ;  and  so  would  disappear 
the  Shield  of  Achilles,  and  much  else,  if  by  any 
means  it  could  be  detached.  But  the  reticence  of 
the  poet  about  Hector  putting  on  the  arms  of 
Achilles,  and  the  little  that  is  said  about  his  wear- 
ing them,  though  enough  is  said  for  the  purpose  in 
hand,  is  of  course  designed  so  as  not  to  interfere  with 
the  effect  of  the  celestial  suit  of  armour  shortly  to 
come.  The  case  is  much  the  same  as  with  the 
Building  of  the  Wall ;  which  being  not  consistent 
with  what  is  said  about  the  Wall  elsewhere,  the 
entire  existence  of  the  Wall  itself  in  the  original 
scheme  has  been  denied.  But  again,  of  two  incon- 
sistent things,  it  is  only  necessary  to  do  away  with 
one  ;  and  here  that  one  which  ought  to  be  struck 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    113 

out  is  the  stripping  of  Patroclus  by  Hector,  and  not 
the  stripping  by  Apollo,  which  magnifies  our  notion 
of  Patroclus,  and  belonged  to  the  original  poet's  plan, 
and  was  by  him  designed  to  bring  about  the 
Forging  of  the  Armour. 

We  proceed  to  Canto  XXXII,  which  terminates 
at  the  end  of  the  book,  and  has  now  306  lines. 
There  is  a  spurious  verse  at  585,  which  is  omitted 
by  several  manuscripts,  was  unknown  to  Zenodotus 
and  Aristonicus,  and  which  all  texts  bracket.  It 
says  that  Apollo  addressed  such  an  one  in  the 
likeness  of  such  an  one,  and  is  a  mere  repetition  of 
326.  The  remaining  5  verses  I  take  to  be  612-616, 
which  cause  such  a  complication  of  the  sentence  in 
which  they  occur,  that  modern  editors  are  obliged  to 
put  dashes  on  either  side  to  clear  up  the  tangle ; 
and  how  an  ancient  reader  may  have  been  expected 
to  cross  safely  through  it  I  cannot  conceive.  What 
happens  is  that  Hector  hurls  a  javelin  at  Idomeneus, 
who  stands  in  a  chariot,  but  narrowly  misses  him  and 
hits  Coeranus,  the  squire  and  charioteer  of  Meriones, 
who  followed  his  master  from  Lyctus.  Then  it 
proceeds,  "  For  he  came  at  first  on  foot,  when  he 
left  the  ships,  and  would  have  bestowed  a  great 
victory  upon  the  Trojans,  had  not  Coeranus  quickly 
driven  up  his  swift  horses,  and  come  as  a  light  to 
him,  and  averted  the  day  of  his  despair,  though  he 
lost  his  own  life  at  the  hands  of  Hector."  From 
the  latter  part  of  this  sentence  it  appears  that  the 

H 


114     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

subject  of  the  main  clause  is  neither  Coeranus  nor 
Meriones,  but  Idomeneus,  which  is  very  difficult. 
And  how  Coeranus  could  defend  his  life  by  driving 
up  his  horses,  when  Idomeneus  already  stands  upon 
the  car,  as  appears  by  the  narrow  miss  and  verse  622, 
which  show  that  the  chariot  of  Idomeneus  and 
Meriones  is  one  and  the  same,  nobody  can  imagine. 
These  verses  are  as  clearly  spurious  as  if  they  had 
come  down  to  us  enclosed  in  a  rectangle. 

Canto  XXXIII,  which  opens  with  the  first  verse 
of  the  Eighteenth  Book,  we  close  at  verse  313. 
The  news  of  Patroclus'  death  is  brought  to  Achilles, 
who  moans  aloud  in  anguish.  His  mother  hears 
him  in  the  depths  of  the  sea,  and  wails  amid  all  the 
assembled  Nereids.  She  visits  her  son,  and  promises 
to  fetch  a  new  suit  of  armour  from  Hephaestus. 
Iris  is  sent  by  Hera  to  press  Achilles  to  show  him- 
self over  the  trench ;  for  though  the  Greeks  have 
succeeded  in  bearing  off  the  body  of  Patroclus, 
they  are  hotly  pursued  by  Hector  and  the  Trojans, 
who  would  have  plucked  it  back,  the  poet  tells  us, 
had  not  Hera  taken  this  step.  Achilles  thrice  shrieks 
across  the  trench,  and  the  Trojans  fly  in  terror. 
Night  falls,  and  the  Trojans  hold  an  assembly  on 
the  plain,  too  frightened  even  to  sit  down ;  and 
with  its  close  the  canto  closes  too.  It  will  not 
delay  us  long.  The  catalogue  of  Nereids  goes  out 
in  1 1  lines,  beginning  and  end  as  plain  as  sun  and 
moon  at  verses  39  and  49,  and  suspected  by  every 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    115 

scholar.  The  remaining  2  verses  are  as  clear  to  me 
as  they  are  to  Dr.  Leaf.  They  are  200-201,  in  the 
speech  of  Iris  to  Achilles,  which  are  repeated  from 
XI  800-801  owing  to  the  similarity  of  the  verse 
above  in  either  case,  and  some  resemblance  in  the 
circumstances.  Iris  here  urges  Achilles,  as  Nestor 
urged  Patroclus  there,  to  show  himself  in  the  field, 
that  the  Trojans  may  abstain  from  fighting  and 
the  Greeks  recover  breath,  though  brief  the  breath  in 
war.  "They  are  not  in  place  here,"  says  Dr.  Leaf; 
"  Achilles  is  not  to  be  roused  into  action  by  any 
sympathy  for  the  weariness  of  the  Greeks,  but  only 
by  the  desire  to  save  his  friend's  body  " ;  which  was 
the  one  motive  used  by  Iris  in  her  former  speech. 

Canto  XXXIV  concludes  with  the  close  of  Book 
XVIII.  It  first  lightly  touches  on  the  supper  of  the 
Trojans,  a  thing  the  poet  likes  to  mark ;  opposes  to 
them  the  Greeks,  who  spend  the  night  in  mourning 
for  Patroclus ;  and  then  passes  on  to  Olympus  and 
the  Forging  of  the  Armour.  This  makes  304  lines. 
Now  toward  the  end  of  the  description  of  the  Shield 
of  Achilles  there  are  4  verses  which  present  a 
great  difficulty.  They  are  603-606,  which  relate 
that  a  mighty  throng  stood  round  the  lovely  dance, 
delighting  in  it ;  and  among  them  an  inspired 
minstrel  was  singing  to  his  harp ;  and  two  tumblers 
over  against  them,  while  he  led  off  the  song  and 
dance,  whirled  in  their  midst.  The  last  three  verses 
are  repeated  word  for  word  in  Odyssey  IV  17-19, 


ii6     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

where  Menelaus  gives  a  wedding  feast  to  his  neigh- 
bours and  kinsmen ;  and  I  am  convinced  that  they 
belong  to  that  place,  and  have  nothing  to  do  with 
this,  but  carry  the  fourth  verse  along  with  them. 
For  in  the  first  place  the  sentence  about  the  minstrel 
does  not  appear  in  any  of  our  manuscripts,  but 
was  inserted  by  Wolf  from  Athenaeus,  who  blames 
Aristarchus  for  striking  it  out ;  which  is  a  censure 
rather  improbable  in  itself,  for  Aristarchus  was  very 
cautious  about  striking  verses  out,  though  he  stigma- 
tised them  freely  as  spurious.  And  this  evidence 
is  cancelled  by  the  further  statement  of  Athenaeus, 
that  the  same  critic  inserted  the  sentence  in  the 
Odyssey ;  for  any  objection  that  Aristarchus  might 
have  felt  to  it  here,  which  seems  to  have  been  the 
use  of  jmeXirea-OaL  for  making  music,  attaches  to  it 
with  equal  force  in  the  other  place.  So  that  instead 
of  being  struck  out  of  the  text  by  Aristarchus,  the 
sentence  most  probably  never  was  in  it ;  being  left 
behind,  when  the  rest  was  repeated  from  the  Odyssey, 
as  ill  suited  to  the  first  verse  about  the  great  throng ; 
which  itself  replaced  the  neighbours  and  kinsmen  of 
the  Odyssean  line,  it  being  wanted  to  provide  spec- 
tators for  the  tumblers.  But  a  minstrel  in  the 
middle  of  a  mighty  throng,  intent  on  other  things, 
is  apt  to  harp  in  vain.  And  if  we  insert  the  sentence 
with  Wolf,  we  are  compelled  to  alter  e^dp^ovreg  to 
e^dpyovTog  in  the  next ;  since  it  is  absurd  that  the 
minstrel  should  be  singing,  yet  that  the  tumblers 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    117 

should  lead  off  the  song.  So  that  it  is  not  a  simple 
insertion,  but  requires  a  change  of  the  text  in  defiance 
of  all  the  manuscripts ;  and  there  is  no  hint  of  a 
variant  to  help  us  here. 

But  now,  if  this  sentence  is  left  out,  the  rest  of 
the  passage  does  not  run  very  well.  For  then  the 
tumblers  are  said  to  lead  off  the  song  and  dance, 
which  to  anyone  who  has  seen  a  tumbler  at  his  tricks 
must  seem  a  thing  well-nigh  impossible.  And  here 
the  observation  of  Athenaeus  seems  perfectly  just, 
that  by  the  omission  of  the  minstrel  the  word 
i^dpxovreg  becomes  an  incurable  blot,  though  he  was 
mistaken  in  imputing  that  defect  to  Aristarchus.  But 
if  we  concede  to  Aristarchus  that  jmoXirri  never  means 
music  in  Homer,  but  only  sport,  which  is  very 
doubtful,  yet  it  is  still  far  from  clear  to  whom  the 
tumblers  give  the  lead.  For  the  frolic  of  the 
tumblers  and  the  dance  of  the  youths  and  maidens 
seem  two  totally  disparate  things;  and  if  they  are 
not,  then  the  leaders  ought  to  have  been  mentioned 
a  dozen  lines  above,  before  the  dance  begins.  And 
the  whole  picture  is  confused,  though  in  the  Odyssey 
it  is  all  clear.  For  there  the  guests  sit  round  the 
hall,  and  among  them  a  minstrel  plays;  and  over 
against  them,  in  their  midst,  the  tumblers  freely 
whirl.  But  here  the  floor  is  occupied  by  the  dance 
of  youths  and  maidens,  who  at  one  time  go 
round  in  a  ring ;  and  if  the  tumblers  were  in  their 
midst,  they  could  not  well  be  seen  by  the  mighty 


ii8     COMPOSITION   OF  THE  ILIAD 

throng.  But  at  other  times  the  youths  and  maidens 
advance  in  rows  to  meet  each  other;  and  what 
becomes  of  the  tumblers  at  this  crisis  it  is  not  easy 
to  say.  The  compartment  is  too  crowded,  with  the 
dance  and  the  mighty  throng  and  the  tumblers,  not 
to  mention  the  minstrel,  and  should  be  left  to  the 
dancers  alone ;  and  this  can  be  done  by  leaving  out 
the  4  lines,  and  then  300  remain. 

The  beginning  and  end  of  Canto  XXXV  I  re- 
gard as  coincident  with  those  of  the  Nineteenth 
Book,  which  has  424  lines.  And  here  I  admit  that 
there  may  be  some  doubt  about  the  precise  applica- 
tion of  our  doctrine,  but  not  about  the  doctrine 
itself,  or  about  the  limits  of  the  canto ;  for  there  is 
both  an  excellent  pause  at  the  end  of  the  book  and 
a  crowd  of  objectionable  matter  in  between.  But  I 
confess  that  at  this  juncture  I  use  the  theory  rather 
more  freely  as  an  independent  test,  to  fix  the  exact 
limits  of  this  undesirable  matter,  instead  of  using  it  at 
once  to  corroborate  and  derive  corroboration  from 
existing  ^grounds  of  suspicion.  The  canto  begins 
with  the  new  morning  and  the  return  of  Thetis,  who 
brings  the  new  armour  to  her  son  ;  proceeds  with  the 
public  renouncement  of  his  wrath;  and  concludes 
with  his  arming  and  the  famous  prophecy  by  the 
horse  Xanthus  of  his  master's  coming  doom.  First  of 
all  there  is  a  verse  which,  as  it  appears,  must  certainly 
be  excised.  It  is  verse  77,  which  says  that  Agamem- 
non addressed  the  assembly  from  his  seat,  just  where 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    119 

he  was,  without  standing  up  in  the  midst.  The 
curious  thing  about  the  verse  is  that  none  of  our 
manuscripts  omit  it,  though  Zenodotus  did  so,  and 
it  is  not  wholly  clear  why  it  was  ever  put  in ;  and  it 
seems  at  first  sight  to  be  strongly  defended  by  the 
stress  which  is  laid  on  Agamemnon's  wound  25  lines 
higher  up.  But  the  fatal  objection  to  it  is  that  it 
makes  nonsense  of  his  very  first  words.  "Aga- 
memnon," as  Dr.  Leaf  remarks,  "is  mortified  and 
hampered  by  the  loud  applause  called  forth  by 
Achilles'  speech."  He  therefore  begins  with  a  brief 
protest,  in  which  he  says  that  it  is  only  fair  to  listen 
to  the  man  who  is  on  his  legs,  and  not  to  interrupt, 
which  puts  an  orator  out,  and  makes  both  hearing 
and  speaking  difficult.  The  word  ea-raorog,  which 
he  uses,  plainly  implies  that  he  himself  is  standing 
up.  We  must  suppose  that  the  stress  laid  on  the 
wound  accounts  solely  for  the  fact  that  Agamemnon 
is  the  last  of  all  the  kings  to  enter  the  assembly, 
which  is  itself  expressed  in  emphatic  terms;  and 
indeed  it  is  striking,  when  he  is  the  chief  person 
interested,  though  at  the  same  time  one  can  almost 
feel  the  pause  of  hushed  expectation  until  the  second 
party  to  the  quarrel  appears.  But  our  interpolator, 
ill  displeased  with  this,  made  him  not  only  the  last 
to  enter,  but  also  to  speak  sitting  down ;  an  unlucky 
addition,  for  Agamemnon's  wound  was  in  the  arm, 
and  would  not  hinder  at  all  his  standing  up,  though  it 
might  prevent  him  moving  about  very  quickly.     But 


I20     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

to  conclude,  the  verse  is  one  of  the  few  which  have 
good  manuscript  authority  and  which  yet  are  re- 
jected by  Mr.  Monro ;  and  most  other  texts  do  the 
same. 

Now  we  continue  with  Agamemnon's  speech. 
When  I  admitted  above  that  the  legend  of  Heracles 
was  somewhat  copious  in  Homer,  I  never  bargained 
for  so  big  a  dose  as  this.  For  here  he  goes  on  for 
42  lines  about  him,  verses  95-136,  during  which 
we  must  needs  forget  the  feverish  impatience  of 
Achilles,  and  take  leave  of  the  whole  situation,  and 
fly  away  to  Thebes  at  first,  and  next  to  Olympus, 
and  thence  to  Argos,  and  up  again  to  Olympus,  and 
after  this  wide  circuit  descend  with  Ate  to  the  same 
point  from  which  we  set  out.  But  attend  to  Dr. 
Leaf:  "95-136.  This  long  episode,  which  the  last 
few  lines  (from  88  or  90)  are  designed  to  introduce, 
has  all  the  appearance  of  having  been  worked  into 
the  story  from  an  independent  Herakleia,  It  is 
needless  to  point  out  how  unsuitable  such  a  digres- 
sion is  at  this  point ;  though  indeed  many  speakers 
with  a  bad  case  take  refuge  in  telling  stories. — It 
will  be  seen  that  the  doings  and  even  the  very  words 
of  the  gods  are  narrated  by  an  actor  in  the  story ; 
elsewhere  they  are  told  only  by  the  poet  himself, 
who  knows  them  of  course  by  direct  inspiration. 
This  no  doubt  was  the  case  in  the  original 
Herakleiay  So  that  our  excision,  up  to  this  point, 
tallies  very  closely  with  the  faults  found  by  scholars 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    121 

after  all.  But  observe  that  Dr.  Leaf  concedes  that 
many  speakers  with  a  bad  case  take  refuge  in  telling 
stories.  Yes,  and  Agamemnon  does  it  too,  but  does 
it  at  reasonable  length,  in  the  little  allegory  of  Ate 
which  comes  just  before  the  long  account  of 
Heracles.  He  actually  calls  it  tovtov  ixvOov,  "this 
parable,"  and  says  that  he  has  heard  a  good  deal  of 
it  in  the  last  few  days.  I  cannot  admit  that  the 
verses  in  which  it  is  told  were  designed  to  introduce 
the  tale  of  Heracles.  For  it  is  too  like  the  allegory 
of  the  Prayers  in  the  speech  of  Phoenix,  and  the 
allegory  of  the  Casks  in  the  speech  of  Achilles  at 
XXIV  527-533,  to  let  us  doubt  that  their  author 
was  the  same ;  and  I  regard  them  all  three  as 
thoroughly  Homeric.  "  Awful  is  Ate  the  daughter 
of  Zeus,"  quoth  the  king,  "  who  blinds  the  wits  of 
all,  woe  worth  her !  And  hers  are  tender  feet ;  for 
she  draws  not  nigh  upon  the  ground,  but  she 
marches  over  heads  of  men,  hampering  all  man- 
kind— well,  at  least  there  is  one  other  whom  she 
has  pinioned  down  (meaning  Achilles  as  well  as 
himself).  But  since  I  have  been  blinded,  and  Zeus 
took  from  me  my  senses,  I  am  willing  to  make 
friends  again  and  pay  a  priceless  recompense."  Now 
the  word  erepov  in  verse  94,  by  which  the  king  in 
self-excuse  glances  at  the  other  party  to  the  quarrel, 
is  taken  by  the  interpolator  in  quite  a  different  way. 
"  For  once  upon  a  time  she  blinded  also  Zeus,  who 
is  said  to  be  the  best  of  men  as  well  as  gods " ; 


122     COMPOSITION  OF  THE   ILIAD 

which  is  next  to  nonsense,  but  was  forced  upon  him 
by  the  emphatic  avOpwirov^  in  Agamemnon's  speech, 
with  which  Zeus  was  somehow  to  be  joined  before 
he  could  come  in  ;  though  the  real  poet  meant  the 
very  opposite,  that  Ate  the  daughter  of  Zeus  was  a 
plague  peculiar  to  mankind.  So  this  fixes  the  first 
line  of  the  interpolation,  and  the  last  line  fixes  itself. 
Well,  Agamemnon  finishes  off  his  speech  of  25 
lines  instead  of  67,  and  Achilles  makes  a  short  reply, 
in  which  he  says  that  he  is  indifferent  whether  he  is 
to  get  gifts  or  not,  but  is  very  earnest  about  getting 
to  work  on  the  Trojans  at  once.  Then  Odysseus 
dissuades  him  from  urging  the  Greeks  to  fight  with- 
out breaking  their  fast,  and  bids  him  grant  them 
time  to  do  so,  while  Agamemnon  is  to  bring  the 
gifts  before  them  all,  that  Achilles  may  be  gratified  by 
the  public  exhibition  of  so  magnificent  a  recompense. 
He  next  turns  to  Agamemnon,  and  in  a  few  brief 
words  says  that  he  has  lost  no  dignity  by  doing  the 
right  thing,  and  will  know  the  better  in  future  how 
to  treat  his  subject  kings.  And  here,  if  I  mistake 
not,  this  stage  of  the  transaction  was  wisely  closed  by 
Odysseus  going  directly  for  the  gifts  to  Agamemnon's 
tent,  as  he  is  now  made  to  do  54  lines  lower  down  at 
verse  238.  But  between  these  two  limits  there  lies 
another  speech  of  Agamemnon,  which  is  very  flat, 
another  speech  of  Achilles,  which  is  very  good,  and 
another  speech  of  Odysseus,  which  is  better  still. 
And  I  suspect  that  the  flat  speech  was  put  together 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO   TWENTY-FOUR    123 

to  connect  with  the  context  the  other  two,  which 
were  composed  apart  by  a  real  poet,  whoever  he 
was,  and  incorporated  here.  For  good  though  these 
speeches  are  in  themselves,  they  have  in  their 
present  context  this  sad  defect,  that  they  prolong 
beyond  endurance  the  debate  as  to  whether  Achilles 
and  the  rest  are  to  have  their  breakfast  or  not, 
before  they  begin  to  fight.  This  is  the  matter 
which  has  caused  the  most  crying  offence  to  readers 
of  the  book,  and  it  provokes  the  ridicule  of  Dr. 
Leaf.  The  last  two  would  do  very  well  if  the  first 
were  away ;  for  they  contain  in  themselves  about  as 
much  of  this  subject  as  we  can  stand,  but  are 
intolerable  when  added  on  to  the  other.  But  the 
other  two  are  also  good  in  themselves,  with  one 
exception  to  which  we  shall  return,  and  cannot  be 
detached  without  causing  incoherence ;  whereas  these 
will  go  out  with  facility.  Then,  as  I  have  stated, 
the  words  which  close  the  first  speech  of  Odysseus 
have  every  appearance  of  winding  up  the  scene 
between  Agamemnon  and  Achilles,  where  shortest 
surely  is  best.  And  I  think  that  most  readers  will 
detect  at  once  in  the  second  speech  of  Odysseus, 
although  not  perhaps  in  that  of  Achilles,  a  marked 
difference  of  style,  which  chiefly  consists  in  a  love  of 
pithy  sententious  sayings,  most  happily  expressed ; 
a  fact  to  which  I  draw  the  reader's  attention,  if  he 
has  not  noted  it  before,  because  I  believe  that  we 
shall  meet  with  this  author  again. 


124     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

But  now  let  us  examine  the  interpolation  a  little 
more  closely.     If  the  reader  follows  on  at  once  from 
verse  183  to  verse  238,  he  will  see  that  there  was 
given  an  opening  here.     For  Odysseus,  after  sug- 
gesting that  Agamemnon  should  produce  the  gifts, 
very  sensibly  joins  to  himself  the  sons  of  Nestor  and 
goes  off  to  fetch  them  without  delay  from  Aga- 
memnon's tent :  a  liberty  that  he  was  entitled   to 
take,  firstly  because  of  the  king's  readiness  expressed 
in    verses    140-144    to    produce    the   gifts    either 
directly  or  later  on,  whichever  were  most  agreeable 
to  Achilles,  a   matter  which  Odysseus  has  argued 
in  his  speech  and  now  settles  by  his  action ;  and 
next,    because    Odysseus    himself   had    been    com- 
missioned to  offer  these  gifts  to  Achilles  at  the  time 
of  the  Embassy,  a  fact  which  is  also  mentioned  by 
the  king  in  the  same  passage,  and  which  is  as  good 
as  a  hint  to  Odysseus.     And  again  we  may  recall 
the   propensity  of  Odysseus  to  act  without  waiting 
for  others,  which  miscarried  before  at  the  time  of 
the  Embassy,  but  here  succeeds,  so  that  the  poet 
now   makes    him   amends.     All   this    is   so    clearly 
understood  that  it  does  not  need  to  be  expressed. 
Then  the  gifts  are  produced,  and  Talthybius  brings 
a  goat  to  sacrifice,  and  Agamemnon  takes  an  oath 
that    he    has    never    known    Briseis ;    all   which   is 
despatched  without  previous  order  to  Talthybius  to 
bring  the  goat,  or  intention  here  expressed  of  taking 
the  oath,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  ceremony  of 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    125 

the  oath  bears  a  near  resemblance  to  that  of  Book 
III  103-120,  where  Talthybius  performs  the  same 
function ;  while  his  willingness  to  take  the  oath  has 
been  avowed  by  Agamemnon  at  Book  IX  132-134 ; 
so  that  these  things  also  could  be  understood  without 
repeating  them  thrice.  And  last  of  all  the  elders 
gather  around  Achilles  and  entreat  him  to  join 
them  at  table;  but  it  is  not  said  where,  for  we 
know  from  VII  313  and  IX  90  that  their  high  repasts 
are  regularly  held  in  Agamemnon's  tent. 

Now  from  these  several  delinquencies  of  the 
poet  has  been  constructed  that  bald  and  bare  address 
of  Agamemnon,  as  well  as  another  short  passage,  to 
which  we  shall  recur.  There  he  names  Odysseus  as 
the  very  man  to  bring  the  gifts,  and  there  he 
commands  Talthybius  to  bring  the  goat;  and  so  is 
found  an  excuse  for  another  reply  of  Achilles  to 
Agamemnon,  and  another  reply  of  Odysseus  to 
Achilles,  which  may  be  the  motive  of  the  whole. 
There  is  nothing  inconsistent  in  Agamemnon's 
speech,  although  it  has  some  oddities,  but  it  is 
almost  prose  when  it  is  not  made  up  from  what 
follows ;  and  at  this  point  I  place  the  beginning  of 
the  interpolation  which,  as  all  will  admit,  gives  us 
far  too  much  about  eating  and  drinking.  Well, 
now  let  us  turn  to  the  first  speech  of  Odysseus  and 
fix  our  attention  on  verses  175-180.  There  he 
suggests  that  Agamemnon  should  take  the  oath,  and 
there  he  suggests  that  the  king  should  feast  Achilles 


126     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

in  his  tent ;  which  completes  the  circle,  and  causes 
all  these  subjects  to  be  repeated  thrice.  But  this 
passage,  unlike  the  other,  oiFers  something  definite 
to  lay  hold  on.  For  the  couplet  176-177  is  re- 
peated from  IX  275-276  in  a  purely  mechanical 
manner,  as  is  shown  by  the  way  of  mentioning  her 
bed,  the  pronoun,  as  Dr.  Leaf  says,  "having  no 
reference,  as  Briseis  has  not  been  named  or  even 
remotely  alluded  to ;  whereas  in  I  she  is  the  subject 
of  the  preceding  line."  And  this  couplet  carries 
the  verse  above  along  with  it.  And  the  next  verse 
is  omitted  from  many  manuscripts,  and  is  bracketed 
in  all  the  texts.  Then  in  the  last  verse  of  the  six 
there  is  a  very  strange  use  of  the  adjective  eTriSeue^, 
which  seems  to  be  used  for  an  abstract  substantive 
meaning  "deficiency."  So  that  I  believe  these  6 
verses  to  be  false;  and  if  we  leave  them  out,  the 
words  of  Odysseus  addressed  to  Achilles  will  end 
with  lavOri^,  and  those  addressed  to  Agamemnon 
with  ■)(a\€Tr-nvri,  which  is  a  small  but  elegant  point. 

And  how  stand  we  now  with  respect  to  our 
numbers  ?  The  sum  of  our  excision  hitherto  is 
I  +  42  +  6  +  54  =  103  ;  which  leaves  us  to  find  2 1 
lines  before  we  have  reduced  424  to  300.  But 
there  can  be  little  doubt  where  we  are  to  look 
for  them.  The  lament  of  Briseis  for  Patroclus 
sounds  a  fine  sort  of  thing  until  you  come  to 
read  it  with  care.  There  is  perhaps  no  very  obvious 
reason  why  Briseis   and    the  other  captive   women 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    127 

should  weep  for  him  at  all.  For  when  in  Book 
XVIII  28-31  the  female  slaves  shriek  out  and  beat 
their  breasts,  it  is  at  the  sight  of  Achilles  col- 
lapsed in  the  dust  and  tearing  his  hair,  and  not  at 
the  news  of  Patroclus'  death,  of  which  they  have 
not  heard.  And  in  the  nightlong  mourning  for 
Patroclus  at  XVIII  314-355  the  Greeks  and 
Myrmidons  take  part,  but  the  women  not  at  all ; 
which  is  no  more  than  natural.  But  here  the 
lament  of  Briseis  proceeds  on  the  extravagant  sup- 
position that  Patroclus  had  promised  to  legitimate 
her  union  with  Achilles,  and  console  her  for  the 
loss  of  her  former  husband,  by  making  her  the 
wife  of  the  very  man  who  slew  him ;  on  which 
Dr.  Leaf  remarks,  "  The  idea  of  a  marriage  between 
Achilles  and  a  captive  is  alien  not  only  to  the 
rest  of  the  Iliad  but  to  all  the  manners  of  the 
heroic  age."  And  as  for  the  other  women,  who 
bear  the  burden,  they  are  brought  in  by  saying 
that  all  of  them  made  moan  for  Patroclus  as  a 
pretext,  but  each  for  the  sorrows  of  themselves ; 
a  point  which  has  been  much  admired,  despite 
the  note  of  insincerity  it  strikes,  but  one  which 
I  hold  with  Heyne  to  display  a  penetration  alien 
to  the  genius  of  our  poet.  Consider  how  the 
real  poet  does  it.  The  elders  gather  round  Achilles, 
who  makes  a  pathetic  speech,  in  which  he  refers 
to  his  aged  father  Peleus  and  his  infant  son  Neop- 
tolemus,  for  whom   he  had  hoped   that   Patroclus 


128     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

would  live  on,  since  he  himself  is  destined  to  die 
at  Troy.  "  So  spake  he  weeping,  and  the  old 
men  mourned  as  well,  remembering  what  each 
had  left  behind  him  in  his  halls " ;  which  rings 
sincere  and  true.  And  to  give  a  notion  of  the 
linguistic  character  of  the  lament,  take  this  note 
of  Dr.  Leaps.  "  Apart  from  the  question  of  style 
and  other  difficulties,  it  contains  many  non-Epic 
expressions ;  kiXf]  for  FiKeXrj^  a-e  eXenrov  with  hiatus 
illicitus^  etSov  (292)  which  cannot  be  resolved  into 
efiSov,  eKOLCTTr}  for  FeKacrrfj.  -Trpocjyaa-iv,  302,  is  also 
doubtful.  Tearing  the  skin  (285)  is  not  elsewhere 
found  as  a  sign  of  grief;  heroic  mourners  do  not 
go  farther  than  tearing  the  hair.  But  this  may  pos- 
sibly be  meant  for  a  *  barbarian '  custom."  The 
remark  about  tearing  the  skin  I  do  not  adopt, 
as  it  seems  to  conflict  with  II  700  and  XI  393  ; 
but  there  is  surely  enough  without  it.  And  all 
this  within  the  compass  of  the  21  verses  282-302, 
which  may  be  removed  with  ease,  so  leaving  300 
behind. 

And  here  for  the  second  time  we  part  company 
from  Mr.  Monro  by  retaining  the  4  verses  365-368, 
which  he  has  enclosed  in  brackets.  But  this  time 
again  it  is  a  question  not  of  manuscript  authority 
but  of  taste ;  for  all  the  manuscripts  present  them. 
They  describe  the  teeth  of  Achilles  as  rattling, 
and  his  eyes  as  blazing  like  a  fire,  and  his  heart 
as  being  filled  with  intolerable  anguish;  and  how 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    129 

in  bitter  rage  against  the  Trojans  he  put  on  the 
gifts  of  the  god,  which  were  wrought  by  the 
labour  of  Hephaestus.  I  think  them  myself  a 
little  overstrained,  but  not  to  be  expunged.  The 
doubt  upon  the  point  is  illustrated  by  what  is 
told  of  Aristarchus,  that  he  first  affixed  his  spits, 
but  afterwards  took  them  away,  considering  the 
nature  of  the  hero's  noise  poetical.  Perhaps  the 
poet  was  somewhat  at  a  loss  to  complete  the 
triacosiad ;  and  Dr.  Leaf  defends  the  lines  from 
the  charge  of  being  grotesque  on  the  ground  of 
barbaric  grandeur. 

And  now,  to  give  the  reader  rest,  let  us  pass 
over  for  the  present  the  Twentieth  Book,  and  go 
on  to  verse  526  of  the  Twenty-first.  There,  with 
the  words  kcrrnKei  S'  6  yipwv  Hpia/uLog,  begins  the 
episode  known  as  the  Slaying  of  Hector,  which 
is  continued  down  to  the  close  of  the  Twenty- 
second  Book ;  for  at  the  verse  aforesaid  the  scene 
is  cleared  by  the  return  of  all  the  gods  to  Olympus 
except  Apollo,  who  enters  sacred  Ilios  anxious  for 
the  safety  of  her  wall.  The  first  part  of  the 
episode  is  composed  of  the  hurried  flight  of  the 
Trojans  into  Troy  before  the  terrible  Achilles,  who 
is  arrested  by  a  combat  with  Agenor,  and  diverted 
by  Apollo  in  Agenor's  form ;  the  heroic  resolve 
of  Hector  to  withstand  Achilles  before  the  walls; 
its  shattering  at  his  awful  enemy's  approach,  and 
his    pursuit    by   Achilles.     The   second    part    con- 

I 


I30     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

sists  of  the  slaying  of  Hector  and  the  wailing  for 
his  death.  The  whole  passage  is  very  nearly  perfect, 
as  all  admit,  and  it  contains  60 1  lines.  The  odd 
verse  is  stigmatised  by  brackets  in  all  the  texts. 
It  is  XXII  121,  which  is  omitted  by  several  manu- 
scripts, is  repeated  from  XVIII  512,  and  makes 
a  tautology  here.  The  tercentenary  break  comes 
after  XXII  215,  just  before  the  words  of  Athene 
to  Achilles,  which  mark  the  beginning  of  the  end. 
It  is  a  curious  pause ;  for  we  might  have  expected 
it  to  come  2  verses  higher  up,  where  Apollo 
leaves  the  side  of  Hector;  after  which  Athene, 
despatched  from  Olympus  by  Zeus,  takes  her  stand 
by  the  side  of  Achilles.  But  I  think  that  we 
can  guess  what  the  poet's  intention  was.  He  has 
told  us  just  above  how  Hector's  fate  settled  down 
in  the  scale,  and  so  he  throws  the  two  verses 
into  the  previous  canto  as  a  sort  of  final  ounce, 
thus  overshooting  slightly  the  even  division  of  the 
incident,  to  adapt  his  artistic  form  more  close  to 
the  facts  described.  Then  follows  as  it  were  an 
universal  hush,  and  at  last  the  solemn  but  trium- 
phant words  of  Athene  break  upon  the  ear.  She 
begins  with  the  impressive  phrase  vvv  Srj  vm  y 
eoXiray  which  reminds  us  that  the  moment  fore- 
told in  Book  XV  613-614  has  at  length  arrived, 
when  Hector  is  to  meet  his  death  at  the  hands 
of  the  son  of  Peleus,  brought  to  pass  by  Pallas 
Athene.     The    dual    is    used   to   mark    the   strict 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    131 

alliance  of  the  pair  henceforth,  as  Athene's  approach 
to  Achilles  was  subjoined  to  the  desertion  of 
Hector  by  Apollo  before  the  pause  to  emphasize  the 
solitude  of  Hector.  And  let  us  add,  that  as  no 
man  who  had  heard  the  first  part  of  this  episode 
could  depart  without  hearing  the  last,  so  the  poet 
might  be  less  careful  to  assign  a  distinct  point 
where  the  recitation  could  be  broken  off,  and 
might  take  a  slight  liberty  with  his  usual  pause 
for  the  sake  of  artistic  effect.  What  precedes  and 
follows  the  division  we  call  Canto  XXXIX  and 
Canto  XL. 

We  go  next  to  the  Funeral  Games  for  Patroclus, 
which,  with  all  that  introduces  and  closes  the  epi- 
sode, embrace  the  whole  of  the  Twenty-third  Book 
and  terminate  at  verse  21  of  the  Twenty-fourth. 
Their  figure  is  918  lines.  The  18  verses  629-646 
are  those  which  I  exclude ;  and  perhaps  by  now  the 
reader  will  be  satisfied  without  further  argument, 
when  he  hears  that  they  contain  a  reminiscence  of 
Nestor,  that  they  begin  with  cf'^'  wg  ^^woi/jh,  that  the 
end  is  clearly  marked  by  the  koI  in  verse  646,  and 
that  they  make  not  the  slightest  difference  to  the 
context  on  either  side.  I  will  only  quote  the  words 
of  Dr.  Leaf,  that  the  couplet  639-640  "defies  inter- 
pretation "  ;  so  we  seem  to  be  lucky  in  losing  it. 
And  now  for  the  two  tercentenary  pauses.  They 
descend  of  course  after  verse  300  and  after  verse 
600  of  Book  XXin.    The  first  falls  just  before  Anti- 


132     COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

lochus  enters  as  the  fourth  competitor  in  the  chariot 
race.  The  reason  of  his  separation  from  the  three 
others  is  that  he  is  privileged  to  receive  from  his 
father  Nestor  a  long  lecture  on  artful  driving,  which 
results  in  his  securing  a  second  place  with  poor 
horses,  but  involves  him  in  a  quarrel  with  the  com- 
petitor whom  he  outwits.  He  mollifies  the  excited 
Menelaus  by  resigning  the  prize,  and  the  canto  ends 
with  a  simile  which  describes  the  soothing  effect  of 
the  generous  act.  During  this  second  pause  we  may 
suppose  the  last  ebullitions  of  Menelaus'  irritation  to 
subside ;  for  when  he  resumes,  with  the  beginning  of 
the  next  canto,  he  is  calm.  The  pauses  here  again 
are  lighter  than  usual,  although  quite  distinct,  the 
three  cantos  being  meant  to  go  together.  They  are 
XLI  and  XLII  and  XLIII. 

After  the  gay,  the  grave  once  more.  At  verse  22 
of  Book  XXIV  begins  the  episode  entitled  the  Ransom 
of  Hector,  the  first  part  of  which  closes  at  verse  321, 
making  exactly  300  lines.  It  is  the  moment  before 
Priam  issues  from  the  town  of  Troy  on  his  perilous 
visit  to  Achilles,  just  after  Zeus  in  response  to  his 
prayer  has  sent  an  eagle  on  the  right,  which  comforts 
and  rejoices  the  souls  of  the  trembling  watchers.  This 
is  Canto  XLIV. 

But  now  what  are  we  to  do  ?  For  here  we  are  left 
with  483  lines  to  the  end  of  the  poem.  I  will  dis- 
close the  secret  at  once.  First  remove  the  spurious 
verse  790,  which  many  manuscripts  omit,  which  is 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    133 

thrice  repeated  in  the  Odyssey,  and  which  all  texts 
bracket  or  reject.  Next  remove  the  little  apologue 
of  Niobe  that  Achilles  tells  to  Priam  in  verses  602- 
620.  Lastly  remove  whatever  is  said  about  Hermes, 
and  you  will  have  removed  most  of  the  Odyssean 
character  which  has  so  often  been  felt  to  belong  to 
this  book,  and  will  have  exactly  300  lines  left.  Per- 
haps I  may  be  given  leave  to  state  that  this  was  the 
canto  which  finally  convinced  me  of  the  truth  of  our 
theory.  For  as  a  mere  coincidence  it  seemed  to  me 
incredible  that  you  could  detach  these  three  things 
in  their  entirety,  without  breaking  into  the  rest,  and 
find  yourself  left  with  exactly  300  lines,  all  of  them 
coherent,  while  at  the  same  time  many  puzzling 
problems  disappeared.  But  it  was  also  the  canto 
which  cost  me  the  most  trouble  to  determine,  though 
it  is  simpler  in  itself  than  some  of  the  others.  For 
having  left  behind  at  first  the  less  straightforward 
cases,  and  having  come  along  so  smoothly  through 
the  last  six  cantos,  I  was  suddenly  brought  up  against 
this  ultimate  stretch  of  the  story,  which  at  all  events 
must  be  reduced,  or  else  the  theory  would  fail.  It 
was  therefore  my  first  experience  of  one  of  the  more 
complicated  cases  of  interpolation ;  but  after  it  had 
yielded,  I  felt  more  confidence  in  dealing  with  the 
rest,  because  it  gave  me  a  distinct  idea  both  of  the 
lengths  and  of  the  limits  to  which  such  work  could 

go. 

About  the  tale  of  Niobe  there  is  not  much  to  be 


134     COMPOSITION  OF  THE   ILIAD 

said.  It  is  beautifully  told  in  i6  verses,  with  3 
more  to  bring  us  back  to  our  muttons.  But  the 
speech  of  Achilles  surely  ends  with  his  words  in  verse 
601,  vvv  Se /JLvrja-do/ULeOa  SopTrov^  "but  NOW  let  US  think 
about  supper,"  after  which  he  cannot  without  impro- 
priety go  on  for  another  20  lines,  but  ought  to  suit 
the  action  to  the  word  at  once  by  killing  his  sheep 
at  verse  621.  Nor  is  the  legend  of  Niobe  found 
anywhere  else  in  Homer.  The  case  of  Hermes, 
however,  requires  some  care,  and  it  will  usefully 
serve  to  introduce  the  reader  to  the  more  com- 
plicated cases  hitherto  postponed.  I  assume  that 
he  has  his  text  of  Homer  at  hand ;  and  if  he  will 
be  so  good  as  to  follow  my  direction,  while  I  point 
out  how  this  episode  can  be  detached,  he  may 
possibly  feel  an  inclination  to  smile  both  at  the  in- 
genuity with  which  it  has  been  woven  in  and  at  the 
facility  with  which  it  can  again  be  disengaged.  He 
was  another  real  poet  who  devised  this  insertion,  and 
he  has  done  his  work  with  more  art  than  the  rest. 
Well,  let  the  reader  put  one  bracket  before  verse 
322,  either  in  his  mind  or  upon  his  page,  and  another 
after  verse  348.  He  will  thus  enclose  two  para- 
graphs, in  the  first  of  which  Hermes  is  sent  by  Zeus, 
while  the  second  conveys  him  to  Troy.  Now  he 
will  notice  that  the  first  contains  a  direct  contra- 
diction of  the  paragraph  above  it,  which  closed  the 
canto  before.  For  here  it  is  stated  in  verses  327- 
328  that  Priam  was  pursued  by  all  his  friends  deplor- 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    135 

ing  him  much,  as  if  he  were  rushing  to  his  death ; 
but  there  it  is  stated  in  verses  320-321  that  as  soon 
as  Zeus  had  sent  the  omen  of  the  eagle  they  rejoiced, 
and  the  spirit  of  all  was  comforted  within  them.  So 
dangerous  a  thing  it  is  for  a  man,  poet  though  he  be, 
to  meddle  with  another  man's  conception ;  and  this 
author's  miscarriage  at  the  outset  affords  a  fair  pre- 
sumption that  we  ourselves  are  right  in  what  we  are 
setting  about. 

And  now  let  us  leave  in  the  next  2  J  verses,  349- 
351  down  to  €v  TTOTa/xft),  which  bring  Priam  and 
Idaeus  beyond  the  Tomb  of  Ilus,  after  which  they 
halt  the  horses  and  the  mules  in  the  river,  in  order 
that  they  may  drink ;  but  let  us  put  a  bracket  before 
Srj  yap  Koi  eiri  KV€(pag  tjXvOe  yaiav.  This  was  the  point 
chosen  by  the  interpolator  for  the  meeting  of  Hermes 
and  Priam.  And  you  will  see  that  at  this  point  there 
is  a  slight  inconsequence  ;  for  the  further  reason  why 
the  mules  and  the  horses  are  halted  to  drink  can 
hardly  be,  strictly  speaking,  because  it  has  also  grown 
dark,  which  would  have  made  it  a  matter  of  some 
trouble  to  water  them,  but  because  there  is  also  water 
where  they  stop.  But  the  object  was  to  account  for 
Priam's  going  unobserved  through  the  Greek  lines, 
and  hence  the  mention  of  the  darkness.  But  the 
circumstance  is  sufficiently  understood  from  the 
moment  when  Priam  enters  Achilles'  tent,  where 
we  hear  at  475-476  that  the  master's  evening  meal 
is  over,  though  the  table  is  still  spread ;  and  up  to 


136     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

that  point  we  know  how  Priam  went  safely  through, 
because  in  verses  153-154  of  the  last  canto  Zeus  has 
announced  his  intention  of  attaching  Hermes  to  his 
train.  "  But  what  is  this  ? "  the  reader  will  ask ; 
"  then  Hermes  appears  after  all  ? "  No,  not  appears  ; 
for  the  meaning  of  Zeus  was  that  he  would  accom- 
pany them  invisible,  just  as  it  was  before  proposed 
in  heaven  that  he  should  steal  away  the  corpse  of 
Hector.  And  this  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  at 
verses  182-183  ^^^^  repeats  to  Priam  the  words  of 
Zeus,  in  order  to  give  him  courage ;  and  yet,  says 
Dr.  Leaf,  "  he  does  not  mention  it  to  Hekabe,  nor 
does  he  recognise  his  guide  when  he  meets  him ; 
Hermes  has  to  tell  his  name  at  the  last  moment." 
Hence  some  suspect  the  verses  in  which  Iris  informs 
him  of  the  intention  of  Zeus.  But  the  better  solu- 
tion is  to  reject  the  meeting  of  Hermes  and  Priam, 
which  conflicts  with  them ;  for  it  is  understood 
throughout  that  Hermes  is  invisible,  in  perfect  keep- 
ing with  his  character,  and  therefore  naught  at  all  is 
said  of  him  by  Priam.  But  the  interpolator  makes 
him  take  the  form  of  a  beautiful  youth,  so  as  to  work 
in  the  scene  between  Priam  and  him ;  on  which  Dr. 
Leaf  has  to  say :  "  It  is  strange  that  the  description 
should  suit  only  the  youthful  Hermes  of  the  great 
age  of  Greek  art ;  for  in  works  of  the  archaic  period 
the  god  is  always  represented  as  bearded."  And  once 
more  he  says  on  339-345  :  "  The  whole  of  this  pas- 
sage, with  the  employment  of  Hermes  as  messenger,  is 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    137 

thoroughly  Odyssean."  But  Hermes  as  the  invisible 
conductor  belongs  to  the  Iliad  ;  for  so  he  is  called  or 
implied  at  II  103  and  XXI  497.  Well,  now  let  us 
place  our  second  bracket  after  'Kp/meiag  in  verse  469. 
So  we  get  rid  of  him,  as  far  as  the  outward  journey 
is  concerned ;  and  you  will  note  that  the  next  words, 
when  united  with  ip  irorafxw  in  verse  351,  make  a 
very  musical  line. 

But  this  causes  the  incident  to  take  a  different 
turn,  and  one  which  is  much  more  natural.  When 
Priam  and  Idaeus  halt  at  the  stream,  Priam  leaps 
down  and  leaves  Idaeus  with  the  horses  and  the 
mules,  and  goes  ahead  direct  to  the  hut  of  Achilles. 
The  interview  takes  place,  in  which  he  informs 
Achilles  at  502  and  556  that  he  is  bringing  a  vast 
treasure,  and  implores  him  to  render  up  the  body  of 
Hector.  Achilles  invites  him  to  sit  down,  but  Priam 
asks  to  be  let  off,  so  long  as  Hector's  body  is  still 
unredeemed.  Achilles  is  nettled,  and  warns  Priam 
not  to  provoke  him  too  far,  for  he  is  sure  that  a  god 
must  have  brought  him  as  a  suppliant  to  the  ships, 
and  he  would  not  transgress  the  will  of  Zeus.  But 
not  a  word  does  the  trembling  Priam  speak  to  con- 
firm in  his  auditor  this  salutary  belief;  which  is 
strange  if  he  had  parted  from  Hermes  just  before. 
Then  Achilles,  followed  by  Automedon  and  Alci- 
medon,  dashes  out  of  doors  ;  they  unyoke  the  horses 
and  mules,  and  fetch  in  the  herald  Idaeus ;  and  they 
bring  the  ransom  of  Hector  from  the  chariot,  and 


138     COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

replace  it  with  his  corpse.  So  Priam  and  Idaeus  sup 
and  sleep  the  night  in  the  vestibule  of  the  building, 
under  the  verandah,  to  avoid  inconvenient  visitors  to 
Achilles,  who  sharply  hurries  them  up.  This  is  all 
quite  simple.  But  in  the  passage  which  we  bracket 
it  is  represented  otherwise.  Hermes  leaps  upon  the 
chariot,  and  drives  the  mules  and  horses  up  to  the 
wall  and  the  trench,  where  he  opens  a  gate  and 
thrusts  aside  the  bars,  and  brings  Priam  and  the 
herald  and  the  ransom  all  inside ;  a  needless  service, 
since  the  whole  structure  was  ruined  by  his  brother 
Apollo  long  ago.  And  we  may  wonder  how,  if 
Achilles  had  chanced  to  receive  Priam  with  acerbity, 
the  miserable  Idaeus  and  the  ransom  would  have  got 
back  safe  across  the  river.  Howbeit  they  advance  to 
the  hut  of  Achilles,  of  which  a  brief  description  is 
given,  from  which  it  appears  to  be  a  remarkably 
massive  house.  There  Hermes  deposits  Priam  and 
the  glorious  gifts,  advising  him  in  what  form  to 
beseech  Achilles  (a  piece  of  advice  which  Priam  in 
the  sequel  quite  ignores),  reveals  his  name,  and  so 
departs  to  Olympus ;  at  which  point  precisely  was 
our  second  bracket  placed.  The  result  is  that  Priam 
leaves  the  herald  and  the  ransom  and  the  live  stock 
standing  outside  in  the  court,  while  the  interview 
takes  place  within ;  which  again  can  only  be  deemed 
a  most  precarious  situation. 

So  now  we  come  to  the  return  journey.     Let  the 
reader  place  a  bracket  before  verse  677  and  another 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    139 

after  verse  694.  By  excluding  these  18  lines  he  will 
exclude  all  that  is  said  about  Hermes,  and  the  para- 
graph will  begin  with 

'Hws  §€  KpOKOTTcrXos  c/ciSvaTO  irao-ov  ctt'  a?av, 

a  type  of  verse  that  does  not  often  occur  between  a 
pair  of  commas.  In  this  passage  we  are  told  that 
other  gods  and  men  slept  all  night,  but  that  Hermes 
did  not  sleep,  pondering  how  to  bring  Priam  back 
from  the  ships,  eluding  the  sacred  warders  of  the 
gate;  a  matter  about  which  he  experienced  no 
trouble  before,  for  he  put  them  all  to  sleep  at 
verse  445.  And  the  gate  again  creates  a  difficulty, 
although  in  the  genuine  verses  566-567  Achilles 
naturally  speaks  of  the  sentinels  of  the  Greek  camp, 
saying  that  Priam  would  not  have  eluded  them,  nor 
would  easily  have  heaved  back  the  bar  of  his  own 
door,  without  some  god  to  guide  him ;  which,  by 
the  way,  gave  a  good  chance  to  the  interpolator  in 
verses  453-456  to  describe  this  beam,  which  re- 
quired three  men  to  strike  it  home  and  three  to  open 
it  up,  though  Achilles  could  do  it  alone.  There  it 
was  opened  from  outside  by  Hermes  in  visible  form ; 
and  we  may  suppose  that  the  same  god's  unseen 
hand  assisted  Priam  with  the  real  bar,  not  elsewhere 
described  as  remarkably  heavy.  And  in  the  spurious 
passage  it  must  from  the  sense  belong  to  the  door 
of  the  forecourt ;  but  in  the  true  it  belongs  to 
the  hut  itself,  for  there  is  no  allusion  to  any  such 


I40     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

enclosure  except  in  the  spurious  verses.  And  surely 
it  was  labour  lost  to  contrive  so  mighty  a  barrier  for 
the  court,  when  legs  and  a  ladder  would  render  it 
vain.  For  the  close  stakes  which  he  plants  around 
the  court  at  verse  453  are  of  little  avail,  unless  some 
insuperable  height  is  specified,  and  only  show  the 
interpolator's  shifts.  So  that  the  whole  idea  of  this 
weighty  beam  is  absurd ;  for  it  would  give  more 
trouble  than  ever  it  was  worth.  Well,  Hermes 
wakes  up  Priam,  and  drives  his  team  as  far  as  the 
Ford  of  Scamander,  after  which  he  goes  away  to 
Olympus ;  all  of  which,  though  not  objectionable  in 
itself,  can  be  perfectly  well  dispensed  with,  as  the 
reader  will  see  on  consulting  the  text.  The  purpose 
here  was  to  get  Priam  thus  far  before  dawn ;  but 
his  safety  was  sufficiently  ensured  by  the  care  of 
invisible  Hermes,  as  well  as  by  the  promise  of 
Achilles  overnight,  that  he  would  suspend  all  hos- 
tilities until  after  Hector's  funeral. 

We  thus  obtain  our  300  lines.  But  I  must  not 
conceal  from  the  reader  that  there  is  a  verse  which 
the  recent  texts  seclude,  but  which  it  is  incumbent 
on  us  to  retain  and  defend.  It  is  558,  the  last  of 
these  four  in  a  speech  of  Priam  to  Achilles : 

Xvo'oVf  iv'  6<f>6aXnoL(rLv  tSco,  a-v  Se  Se^at  ctTrotva 

TToWd,  TO,  TOL  <f>€pOfX€V'  (TV  Be  TlOvS'   (XTTOVaiO,    Koi  lA^OlS 

(rrjv  Is  7raT/5t8a  yatav,  CTret  fxe  irpioTOV  eacras 
avTov  T€  ^(ueti/  Kttt  opav  c{>dos  'qeX.Loio. 

Some  manuscripts  omit  the  verse,  and  editors  agree 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    141 

to  discard  it  as  a  mere  expletive  of  eaa-ag.  But  in 
the  first  place  it  appears  to  have  very  fair  manu- 
script authority;  and,  again,  it  seems  to  be  quite 
requisite  to  the  sense.  For  without  the  verse  surely 
the  distinction  of  a-ijv  from  /me,  together  with  the 
addition  of  irpwrov,  compels  us  to  supplement 
eaara^  from  eXOoig,  with  the  meaning,  "may  you 
enjoy  these  gifts,  and  may  you  come  to  your  own 
native  land,  since  you  have  first  permitted  me  (to  do 
the  same)  "  ;  which  is  absurd,  when  Priam  is  standing 
in  his  own  native  land.  But  if  we  retain  it,  with 
the  meaning,  "since  you  have  first  permitted  me 
myself  to  live  (at  the  moment)  and  to  behold  the 
light  of  the  sun  (hereafter),"  there  is  an  excellent 
point.  For  it  glances  at  the  doom  laid  upon  the 
youthful  warrior,  that  he  never  was  to  return  to  his 
native  land,  but  was  fated  to  die  at  Troy;  and  the 
prayer  of  the  grateful  old  king  that  it  might  haply 
be  remitted,  in  consideration  of  his  mercy  for  another, 
could  not  be  more  delicately  expressed.  But  with- 
out the  verse  this  notion  does  not  arise  at  all.  Dr. 
Leaf  quotes  in  defence  of  eaa-as  without  an  infinitive 
verse  569, 

jx-q  are,  ykpov,  ov8^  avrhv  €vi  KXL(rirj(riv  lacro). 

Yes,  but  there  is  no  irpwrov  here,  and  no  possible 
ambiguity  about  the  meaning.  "Do  not  provoke 
me,"  says  Achilles,  "  lest  even  as  you  stand  within 
my  tent,  old  man,  I  let  you  not  alone  "  ;  where  the 


142     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

reticence  itself  adds  a  terror  to  the  threat.  Next  he 
quotes  verse  684,  which  is  found  in  our  rejected 
passage,  and  of  which  I  will  only  say  that  again 
there  is  no  possible  ambiguity.  Thirdly,  he  quotes 
XVI  731,  Aavaovg  ea  ovS'  evapiXev^  where  the  mean- 
ing of  ea  is  instantly  conveyed  by  the  words  which 
follow  it.  And  lastly  he  quotes  Odyss.  IV  743-4, 
Karcucrave  vtiXei  ;(aX«:w,  ^  ea,  where  the  sense  of  ea  is 
instantly  conceived  from  what  precedes.  The  last 
two  instances  tend  to  show  that  the  sense  of  iirei  fxe 
TTptoTou  eaa-ag^  unless  it  is  followed  by  an  infinitive, 
ought  to  be  completed  from  the  context;  which 
if  it  be  the  case,  the  clause  by  itself  is  not  alone 
ambiguous  but  openly  absurd. 

It  is  time  to  go  back  and  direct  our  attention  to 
that  stretch  of  poetry  which  extends  from  the  first 
verse  of  the  Twentieth  Book  to  verse  525  of  the 
Twenty-First.  It  consists  of  1028  lines  in  all. 
Now  you  may  try  every  way  to  divide  up  these 
verses  as  they  stand,  but  you  will  not  find  that  two 
satisfactory  pauses  can  be  produced,  between  which 
they  will  lie  in  three  sections  of  300  lines,  after 
rejecting  passages  or  particular  verses  antecedently 
suspicious.  But  there  is  one  set  of  verses  which 
seems  to  be  marked  out  for  the  application  of  our 
method.  It  is  that  which  begins  at  Book  XX  176 
and  continues  down  to  the  close  of  the  same  book. 
The  anterior  limit  is  the  moment  when  Achilles  and 
Aeneas,  whose  encounter  has  already  been  promoted 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    143 

by  Apollo,  come  actually  face  to  face.  And  we  may 
observe  that  just  before  the  break  occurs  the  long 
and  splendid  simile,  alluded  to  above  as  one  of  the 
finest  in  Homer,  in  which  Achilles  is  compared  to  a 
lion  lashing  himself  to  fight,  and  meditating  either 
to  slay  some  man  or  to  perish  in  the  foremost  throng. 
"It  stands  out  from  the  context,"  says  Dr.  Leaf;  a 
remark  which  we  may  convert  to  our  own  account 
by  saying  that  the  poet  knows  how  to  set  off  his 
jewel  by  placing  it  before  the  pause.  The  posterior 
limit  is  the  moment  when  Achilles,  in  his  tremen- 
dous onslaught  upon  the  Trojans,  arrives  at  the 
Ford  of  Scamander;  and  here  again  the  poet  has 
summed  up  the  situation  in  a  pair  of  useful  similes. 
The  whole  is  328  lines.  But  there  can  hardly  be 
the  slightest  doubt  about  the  odd  28.  They  are 
verses  213-240,  in  which  Aeneas  retails  the  long 
genealogy  of  the  Trojan  royal  family,  setting  out 
with  Zeus  and  going  on  with  Dardanus,  Ericthonius, 
Tros ;  Ilus  and  Assaracus  and  Ganymede,  sons  of 
Tros ;  Laomedon,  son  of  Ilus ;  Tithonus  and  Priam 
and  Lampus  and  Clytius  and  Hicetaon,  the  sons  of 
Laomedon;  Capys,  son  of  Assaracus,  Anchises, 
Aeneas;  and  Hector,  a  son  of  Priam.  And  all 
this  solemn  deduction  of  his  pedigree  takes  place  in 
answer  to  a  few  bantering  words  of  Achilles,  which 
import  that  Aeneas  was  ambitious  to  sit  upon  the 
throne  of  Troy  himself.  The  tree  is  introduced  by  the 
very  same  words  as  were  used  in  tracing  the  genealogy 


144     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

of  Glaucus  in  the  Sixth  Book,  "  But  if  indeed  you 
desire  to  find  out  about  this,  that  you  may  perfectly 
comprehend  our  lineage,  and  many  men  know  of  it "  ; 
and  it  ends  immediately  before  another  verse  occur- 
ring in  the  former  passage,  "  Such  is  the  lineage  and 
blood  of  which  I  boast  that  I  come,"  which  properly 
applies  to  his  statement  in  the  genuine  verses  that 
his  father  was  Anchises  and  his  mother  is  Aphrodite, 
and  as  worthy  a  pair  as  Peleus  and  Thetis  too.  I 
cannot  agree  with  Dr.  Leaf,  when  he  avers  that  in 
the  speech  of  Achilles  there  is  not  one  word  belong- 
ing to  the  situation ;  but  I  do  agree  with  him  when 
he  ridicules  the  lengthy  Trojan  pedigree,  which 
Aeneas  has  begun  by  asserting  that  Achilles  well 
knows  already. 

But  once  again  there  is  a  single  line  which  all 
the  recent  texts  seclude.  It  is  verse  312,  and 
it  happens  to  be  of  the  same  nature  as  the  last, 
being  commonly  rejected  as  intended  to  provide 
an  infinitive  for  ida-yjg  in  the  verse  above.  It  was 
lucky  that  we  had  good  grounds  for  holding  on 
to  the  other  one ;  for  here  the  manuscript  autho- 
rity is  slighter,  and  there  are  less  forcible  links  to 
chain  it  to  the  context.  But  are  we  not  fairly 
entitled  to  assume  that  the  same  unhappy  influence 
which  operated  in  the  former  case  has  operated 
here,  and  that  the  difference  of  manuscript  autho- 
rity merely  measures  the  different  degree  of  facility 
with  which  the  line  could  be  done  without,  when 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    145 

once  the  notion  of  its  wrongness  was  started  ?  The 
greater  the  ease  with  which  it  could  be  dropped, 
the  more  the  copies  that  would  thenceforth  omit 
it ;  but  all  the  same  it  may  be  a  perfectly  genuine 
line.  Hera  says  to  Poseidon  concerning  Aeneas, 
who  is  highly  thought  of  on  both  sides  of  Olympus, 
"  You  must  consider  for  yourself,  whether  you  will 
rescue  him,  or  whether  you  will  leave  him 

TlrjXetSr)  'A>(tAiJt  Saiirjfievat^  ecrdXhv  lorra, 

to  be  slain  by  Achilles,  son  of  Peleus,  worthy 
though  he  be."  Now  there  is  no  doubt  that 
we  could  easily  dispense  with  the  infinitive  here ; 
for  the  meaning  of  eda-rig  is  amply  explained  by 
that  of  epva-a-eai  before  it.  But  neither  again  is  there 
harm  in  completing  it ;  and  the  first  three  words 
in  a  manner  revert  to  Poseidon's  phrase  IliyXe/cow 
Sa/uLch  "Al'Soa-Se  Kareicri  in  294,  after  which  he  had 
digressed  a  little  on  the  merits  of  Aeneas.  And 
we  may  observe  that  ia-OXov  has  its  correct  Homeric 
sense  of  useful,  serviceable,  good  for  something; 
which  refers  to  the  welcome  gifts  that  Aeneas 
always  gave  to  the  gods,  as  stated  by  Poseidon  at 
299,  and  accounts  for  their  interest  on  his  behalf. 
I  must  frankly  confess  that  had  it  suited  my 
purpose  to  leave  out  the  line,  I  should  have  done 
so  without  scruple ;  but  since  the  opposite  is  the 
case,  I  am  predisposed  to  defend  it.  And  perhaps 
our  criterion,  if  once  it  is  established,  will  lend  its 

K 


146     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

support     to    this    innocent    line.     This    is    Canto 
XXXVII. 

Now  deducting  328  from  1028,  we  are  left 
with  700  lines,  of  which  175  come  before  the 
canto  last  determined,  while  525  follow  after  it; 
these  being  the  residual  portions  of  Book  XX  and 
Book  XXI  respectively.  I  am  about  to  invite  the 
reader  to  take  a  Napoleonic  step,  vast  but  simple. 
If  he  look  at  the  title  of  the  Twentieth  Book,  he 
will  see  that  it  is  inscribed  as  Theomachia  or  the 
Battle  of  the  Gods.  But  he  will  look  in  vain  for 
any  such  battle  in  the  book  itself;  for  it  does 
not  begin  till  the  next.  Nor  is  it  a  mere  example 
of  misnomer,  but  affects  the  artistic  course  of  the 
narrative.  These  are  the  words  of  Dr.  Leaf :  "  There 
is  in  <X>  a  real  battle  of  the  gods;  but  all  that  we 
have  here  is  a  bombastic  introduction  (1-74)  which 
leads  to  nothing  whatever,  and  is  in  quite  ludicrous 
contradiction  to  the  peaceful  mood  of  133  ff. 
It  is  likely  enough  that  the  prologue  here  really 
belongs  to  the  battle  in  ^;  for  ^  385  or  387 
might  follow  on  Y  74  with  much  gain  to  the 
significance  of  55-74.'*  With  the  main  objection 
urged  I  fully  agree.  It  is  ludicrous  that  Zeus 
should  remove  his  veto  on  the  intervention  of  the 
gods,  and  awake  incessant  war;  the  gods  go  forth 
to  battle,  and  range  themselves  against  each  other, 
and  encourage  the  mortal  combatants ;  grievous 
strife  break  out  among  themselves;    Zeus  thunder 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    147 

horribly  from  on  high,  Poseidon  from  below  shake 
the  tops  of  the  mountains,  and  Hades  tremble 
lower  still  at  the  conflict  coming  on;  and  then 
that  the  whole  heavenly  host  should  quietly  go 
and  sit  down  in  two  bodies,  one  around  Poseidon 
and  Hera  at  the  wall  of  Heracles,  and  the  other 
around  Apollo  and  Ares  upon  the  brows  of  Calli- 
colone;  where  they  remain  sitting  peacefully 
throughout  the  space  of  732  verses,  and  at  length 
begin  the  battle  for  no  particular  reason  at  XXI 
385.  But  instead  of  inferring  that  the  prologue 
here  really  belongs  to  the  battle  in  XXI,  I  infer 
that  the  battle  in  XXI  really  belongs  to  the  pro- 
logue here.  For  consider  what  Dr.  Leaf  says 
himself  in  his  introduction  to  Book  XXI :  "  The 
Theomachy  (385-513)  is  one  of  the  very  few 
passages  in  the  Iliad  which  can  be  pronounced 
poetically  bad.  Unlike  the  really  Homeric  episodes, 
it  does  not  come  at  a  break  in  the  main  story,  but 
interrupts  meaninglessly  Achilles'  career  of  ven- 
geance. In  place  of  the  imposing  conflict  of  the 
divine  powers  which  we  were  led  to  expect  at  the 
beginning  of  Y,  we  are  presented  only  with  a  ridicu- 
lous harlequinade,  having  no  reference  to  the  story, 
poverty-stricken  in  expression,  and  owing  what 
little  interest  it  has  to  the  reminiscences  of  the 
wounding  of  Aphrodite  in  E,  on  which  it  is  doubt- 
less founded  .  .  .  .  It  is  noteworthy,  however, 
that  the  episode  is  remarkably  free  from  linguistic 


148     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

oiFences,  such  as  'violations  of  the  digamma'  and 
other  signs  of  late  composition.  The  author  of 
it  must  have  had  an  accurate  sense  of  the  old 
Epic  language."  I  should  not  exactly  term  the 
Theomachy  a  ridiculous  harlequinade,  nor  its  pro- 
logue a  bombastic  introduction ;  but  the  latter 
is  perhaps  a  little  overwrought,  and  the  former 
is  couched  in  a  lighter  vein.  And  yet,  perverse 
as  it  may  seem,  I  regard  it  as  an  instance  of  sound 
judgment  in  our  author.  For  he  was  aware  that 
he  could  describe  no  effects  at  all  adequate  to  a 
conflict  of  divinities,  but  that  each  successive  stroke 
could  only  prescribe  a  limit  to  their  powers.  He 
therefore  withholds  the  greater  gods,  Poseidon  and 
Apollo,  from  the  fray;  grants  the  greater  god- 
desses, Athene  and  Hera,  an  easy  victory;  makes 
the  throes  of  nature  as  terrific  as  he  can ;  but 
dissolves  the  whole  in  laughter,  and  interposes 
this  humorous  episode  as  a  sort  of  relief  before 
the  tragic  climax  of  his  story.  And  perhaps  there 
are  few  phrases  in  the  poem  more  stupendous  than 
ajuLCp],  Se  a-aXTTiy^ep  jixiyag  oupavog,  or  the  one  next  be- 
fore it,  PpoL')(e  S^  evpela  x'^^^i  ^^  which  you  can  almost 
hear  the  wide  earth  creaking  with  the  weight  of  these 
heavenly  combatants;  not  to  speak  of  the  freedom 
from  linguistic  offence  which  Dr.  Leaf  allows. 

But  on  the  main  point  I  agree  with  him  again. 
In  its  present  position  the  Theomachy  meaninglessly 
interrupts  Achilles'  career  of  vengeance,  and  ought 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    149 

to  come  before  it.  And  the  place  where  it  ought 
to  come  is  waiting  ready  for  it  at  verse  1 5  5  of  Book 
XX,  shortly  before  the  career  of  Achilles  is  opened 
by  the  gradual  approach  of  himself  and  Aeneas, 
during  which  the  poet  depicts  his  hero's  gait  in  the 
long  and  elaborate  simile  with  which  the  canto 
closes.  Interpose  the  whole  Theomachia  in  XXI 
385-514  between  verses  155  and  156  of  Book  XX, 
and  watch  how  the  narrative  runs.  Poseidon  and 
other  gods,  Oeol  aWot  in  XX  149,  sit  down  at  the 
wall  of  Heracles ;  while  others  sit  opposite,  around 
Apollo  and  Ares,  on  the  brows  of  Callicolone.  But 
among  yet  other  gods,  ev  S^  aWoiari  Oeola-iv  in  XXI 
385,  strife  fell  with  heavy  weight.  The  whole  uni- 
verse rings.  Zeus  sitting  on  Olympus  hears  it  and 
laughs,  when  he  looks  on  gods  engaging  in  war. 
Then  those  others  no  longer  stood  aloof;  for  Ares 
led  them  on.  He  singles  out  Athene  from  the 
opposite  side ;  and  so  the  battle  is  fairly  joined. 
Now  surely  the  connection  and  contrast  of  Oeoi 
aWoi  with  aWoicrt  Seoicriv^  together  with  the  reference 
of  o7  ye  in  XXI  391  to  OL  in  XX  151,  superadded 
to  the  fact  that  such  a  transposition  can  be  made 
without  a  jar,  is  sufficient  proof  that  originally  the 
one  passage  followed  directly  on  the  other.  And 
the  careful  distinction  of  the  gods  who  commence 
the  fray  from  those  who  sit  about  Poseidon  and 
Apollo  produces  a  very  good  point ;  for  so  it  often 
happens  that  when  insignificant  ones  begin  to  quarrel, 


I50     COMPOSITION   OF  THE  ILIAD 

their  betters  are  apt  to  be  drawn  into  it  too.  Well, 
now  let  us  come  to  the  other  end.  The  battle  goes 
blithely  on,  until  Hera  chastises  Artemis,  who  pro- 
ceeds to  Olympus  and  complains  to  Zeus  of  her 
stepmother's  conduct.  The  interview  closes  with 
the  familiar  verse  wg  ol  fxev  roiavra :  and  here,  but 
for  the  subsequent  fight  of  Achilles  with  the  River, 
which  leads  on  to  the  fight  of  the  River  with 
Hephaestus,  the  Battle  of  the  Gods  is  brought  to 
an  end.  Then  we  return  to  the  mortal  actors,  who 
have  all  this  while  been  marshalling  around  their 
respective  chieftains,  at  XX  156  roov  S'  dirav  eirXw^n 
ttcSlov  .  .  .  avSpwv  i^S^  I.ttitodv.  Achilles  and  Aeneas 
advance  into  the  middle,  as  arranged  by  Apollo 
before  the  Battle  of  the  Gods  began ;  the  canto 
closes  with  the  simile  so  often  noticed ;  and  with  the 
beginning  of  the  next  the  two  champions  fall  to 
work,  marking  the  exact  moment  at  which  the 
triumphant  career  of  Achilles  begins.  Nothing 
could  be  more  coherent,  nothing  better  subordinated, 
or  more  cunningly  contrived. 

And  now  what  is  the  numerical  result  of  this 
transposition  ^  There  are  155  verses  before  the 
Theomachia,  which  itself  contains  130,  and  is 
followed  by  20  to  the  end  of  the  canto ;  making 
305  in  all.  Two  of  these  verses  are  enclosed  in 
brackets  in  all  the  texts.  The  first  is  XX  135, 
which  many  manuscripts  omit,  and  which  is  repeated 
from  VIII  211,  owing  to  the  similarity  of  the  verse 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    151 

above.  The  second  is  XXI  510,  in  the  Theomachia 
itself,  which  is  omitted  by  a  large  majority  of  manu- 
scripts, and  is  identical  with  V  374,  where  it  follows 
on  the  wounding  of  Aphrodite,  as  here  on  the 
chastisement  of  Artemis.  As  to  the  remaining 
three,  the  conclusion  is  irresistible.  They  are  the  3 
verses  XX  153-155,  which  were  put  in  to  delay  the 
Theomachia  to  a  later  stage :  "So  sat  they  on  each 
side  devising  their  plans  ;  but  both  sides  shrank  from 
beginning  the  war,  though  Zeus  sitting  on  high  was 
urging  them  on."  They  form  a  little  paragraph  all 
by  themselves,  as  marked  in  the  text  of  Mr.  Monro. 
Even  if  we  keep  them  in,  the  narrative  would  cohere 
as  suggested  above.  But  I  do  not  think  that  there 
are  three  other  verses  that  can  equally  well  be  done 
without ;  and  they  delay  the  connection  of  aWoi 
and  aWoia-iv  a  little  too  long.  Then  again,  though 
I  have  tried  to  give  the  most  natural  meaning  to 
Zev9  S'  rjiuL€vo9  v^i  /ceXeue,  yet  it  is  not  wholly  correct. 
For  it  ought  to  mean  that  Zeus  was  commanding 
them  to  fight ;  which  if  he  could  command,  when 
seated  on  Olympus,  yet  it  fails  of  its  effect, 
for  they  begin  for  a  different  reason.  But  Dr. 
Hentze  and  Dr.  Leaf  think  it  ought  to  mean,  "  And 
Zeus  sitting  on  high  was  supreme  over  them  "  ;  which 
may  be  even  more  correct,  but  is  still  more  irrelevant. 
So  that  the  verses  are  not  without  a  difficulty  in 
themselves.  Now  if  anyone  should  ask  how  the 
dislocation  of  the  Theomachia  came  about,  the  cause 


152     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

I  take  to  be  this.  The  poet,  as  we  saw,  finished  off 
the  battle  with  a  scene  in  Olympus,  before  the  career 
of  Achilles  began.  But  he  could  not  explicitly  state 
that  it  was  over,  because  he  wished  to  restart  it  with 
Hephaestus  and  Scamander,  when  the  River  tries  to 
overwhelm  Achilles.  But  the  diasceuast,  so  to  call 
him,  had  the  misery  to  ask  himself  what  the  gods 
were  imagined  to  be  doing,  if  their  fighting  was 
stopped,  during  the  first  part  of  Achilles'  career; 
to  which  the  true  answer  is,  that  anyone  who  could 
turn  his  attention  from  that  exciting  theme  might 
think  whatever  he  liked.  But  not  content  with  this, 
he  made  the  gods  sit  devising  their  plans  during 
half  of  Achilles'  career,  and  kept  them  sitting  there 
until  the  Fight  with  the  River,  and  then  at  length 
brought  in  the  Theomachia ;  so  that  to  solve  his 
own  silly  problem  he  raised  another  far  worse.  So 
much  for  Canto  XXXVI. 

The  next  canto,  which  embraces  the  career  of 
Achilles  till  he  reaches  the  Ford  of  Xanthus  or 
Scamander,  we  have  already  settled ;  and  now  we 
have  to  deal  with  Canto  XXXVIII,  which  begins 
with  the  beginning  of  Book  XXI  and  extends  down 
to  verse  525.  But  we  have  taken  out  the  Theo- 
machia in  the  130  verses  385-514,  and  are  therefore 
left  with  395  lines.  Are  there  95  verses  which  would 
be  better  away .?  I  hold  that  there  are  exactly  that 
number.  First  of  all  let  us  despatch  the  spurious 
verse  158,  which  many  manuscripts  omit,  and  which 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    153 

all  the  texts  enclose.  It  says  that  the  river  Axius 
sends  forth  the  fairest  water  of  all  upon  the  earth, 
repeating  II  850  in  the  Trojan  Catalogue,  which  we 
cut  out  before.  But  it  does  not  suit  in  either  place, 
and  caused  great  difficulty  in  antiquity ;  for,  as  Dr. 
Leaf  informs  us,  "it  is  and  always  was,  apparently,  a 
very  dirty  stream."  We  are  now  left  with  94  lines ; 
but  it  is  surely  a  strange  thing  that  you  can  go  on 
from  avTcip  6  fin  in  verse  205  to  avrap  6  fitj  in  verse 
299,  which  makes  94  lines,  and  get  rid  of  some  grave 
perplexities  by  doing  so.  And  here  let  us  interpose 
a  few  words  about  the  topography  of  the  Troad,  as 
it  is  conceived  by  the  author  of  the  Iliad.  The  two 
distinctive  features  of  the  scene  are  the  Greek  camp, 
resting  on  the  Hellespont  to  the  north-west,  and  the 
town  of  Troy,  reposing  on  an  eminence  at  the  foot 
of  Mount  Ida  to  the  south-east.  South  and  north 
therefore,  roughly  speaking,  face  the  foes.  Between 
them  is  the  Trojan  Plain,  the  middle  point  of  which 
is  marked  by  the  great  Tomb  of  Ilus,  as  stated  at 
XI  167.  Let  us  start  from  the  Scaean  gates  of  Troy 
and  advance  beyond  the  Tomb,  as  Priam  and  Idaeus 
did  at  XXIV  349,  and  we  come  to  the  Ford  of 
Scamander,  whither  Hector  was  carried  back  from 
the  ships  when  wounded  by  Ajax  at  XIV  433.  The 
river  is  imagined  as  flowing  across  the  plain,  which 
it  divides  into  two  unequal  parts,  the  wider  toward 
Troy  and  the  narrower  toward  the  camp ;  after  which 
it  sweeps  round  to  the  north,  along  the  western  side 


154     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

of  the  plain,  and  flows  into  the  sea  somewhere  about 
the  ships  of  Achilles,  past  the  right  of  the  Greek 
camp.  About  the  bend,  as  it  would  seem,  it  is 
joined  by  the  river  Simois,  where  Hera  and  Athene, 
coming  from  Olympus,  halted  their  steeds  on  the 
first  day  of  battle  at  V  774.  We  may  say,  for  sim- 
plicity's sake,  that  the  Scaean  Gates,  the  Tomb  of 
Ilus,  the  Ford  of  Scamander,  and  the  Ship  of 
Odysseus  lie  in  one  straight  line  north  and  south ; 
though  the  name  might  import  that  the  Scaean  gates 
lie  somewhat  to  the  left  of  it,  being  balanced  by  some 
other  gates  on  the  right.  How  far  this  supposition 
fits  the  real  facts,  so  well  described  by  Dr.  Leaf  in 
his  recent  book  about  Troy,  we  do  not  at  present 
inquire. 

Well,  Achilles  first  drives  the  Trojans  across  the 
narrower  portion  of  the  plain,  between  the  ships  and 
the  river,  until  they  come  to  the  Ford.  There  he 
cuts  them  into  two  parts,  scaring  half  of  them  over 
the  Ford  to  what  is  called  by  eminence  the  Plain, 
being  the  larger  width  of  it,  whence  they  fly  to  the 
city ;  while  the  other  half  he  catches  on  the  Greek 
side,  huddled  up  in  the  bend  of  the  river.  They 
plunge  into  the  stream ;  he  lays  his  spear  on  the 
bank  and  leaps  in  after  them  with  his  sword  alone, 
hewing  right  and  left  until  he  is  tired.  Thence  he 
takes  out  alive  twelve  Trojan  youths  to  be  sacrificed 
to  Patroclus,  binds  them,  and  hands  them  over  to 
his  comrades  to  convey  to  the  ships.     Then  he  darts 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    15  j 

back  again,  no  doubt  this  time  by  the  Ford,  for  he 
carries  with  him  his  weighty  spear.  He  meets  Lycaon 
escaping  out  of  the  river,  slays  him,  and  pitches  his 
body  back  into  the  current,  adding  some  contemptu- 
ous words  which  infuriate  the  River,  already  angered 
by  the  havoc  in  his  stream.  As  he  faces  the  river, 
Asteropaeus  escaping  from  it  also  meets  him,  is  slain, 
and  left  lying  on  the  sand.  Achilles  proceeds  to 
the  Plain ;  but  the  wrathful  River,  resolved  to  stop 
his  course,  swells  the  tide  and  floods  the  ground, 
calling  on  his  brother  Simois  to  do  the  same.  The 
flood  is  described,  and  Achilles  is  almost  swept  away, 
when  Hera  rouses  Hephaestus  to  burn  up  the  stream 
with  fire.  The  fight  of  the  elements  is  described, 
until  Scamander  pleads  with  Hera  for  mercy,  who 
thereupon  restrains  Hephaestus.  Then  Apollo  enters 
into  Troy ;  the  rest  of  the  gods  depart  to  Olympus ; 
and  Achilles  continues  on  his  way  to  the  city,  dealing 
death  as  he  goes.  And  here  follows  next  the  Slaying 
of  Hector. 

This  is  all  quite  simple  and  coherent ;  but  there 
are  two  small  matters  which  might  alarm  an  unin- 
structed  reader.  At  verse  298,  where  we  resume 
after  the  interpolation,  it  is  said  that  Achilles  pro- 
ceeded to  the  Plain,  because  a  behest  of  the  gods 
did  mightily  urge  him  on.  Now  in  the  interpolated 
passage  a  suggestion  of  this  sort  is  made  to  him  by 
Poseidon  at  verse  293  ;  and  it  looks  as  if  by  cutting 
it  out  we  should  destroy  the  reference  of  the  phrase, 


156     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

although  the  behest,  if  it  can  be  so  called,  is  not 
urged  by  the  gods  but  enjoined  by  Poseidon  alone. 
But  if  the  reader  will  turn  to  Book  XV  593  he  will 
learn  that  this  is  a  general  phrase,  meaning  only  that 
it  was  the  will  of  heaven  that  he  should  continue  his 
career  of  vengeance.  For  there  it  is  stated  that  the 
Trojans,  when  attacking  the  ships,  were  performing 
the  behest  of  Zeus ;  on  which  Dr.  Leaf  comments, 
"  The  charge  which  Zeus  has  laid  upon  them,  not  in 
direct  words,  but  in  his  own  counsel,  as  is  explained 
by  what  follows.''  What  there  follows  is  that  Zeus 
aroused  a  mighty  strength  within  them ;  and  what 
follows  here  is  that  Athene  put  a  mighty  strength 
into  Achilles.  So  that  the  one  passage  will  bear  out 
the  other  in  all  respects,  and  there  is  no  need  for  the 
behest  to  be  directly  given.  The  other  small  point 
is  this,  that  by  removing  the  Theomachia  and  going 
on  from  verse  384  to  verse  515,  we  shall  hit  on  the 
word  avTOip  thrice  in  the  same  paragraph,  at  383 
and  515  and  520;  which  might  offend  our  ears. 
But  it  marks  the  three  successive  stages  in  clearing 
the  scene  for  the  Slaying  of  Hector ;  first  the  cessa- 
tion of  the  Fight  with  the  River ;  next  the  departure 
of  the  gods ;  and  then  the  return  to  Achilles.  So 
that  the  repetition  of  the  adverb  is  strong  and  dis- 
tinct, instead  of  weak  or  careless. 

Well,  now  to  deal  with  the  interpolation  itself. 
It  states  that,  after  slaying  Asteropaeus,  Achilles 
went  on  to  pursue  the   Paeonians ;   which   is   not 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    157 

much  amiss  in  itself,  for  they  may  be  presumed 
to  be  near  their  leader  Asteropaeus,  although  it 
strikes  Dr.  Leaf  as  strange  that  nothing  has  been 
said  of  them  before.  Then,  according  to  this 
author,  the  River  assumes  a  human  form  and 
bids  Achilles  slay  the  Trojans  upon  the  Plain,  if 
he  must,  instead  of  damming  up  the  stream  with 
their  corpses.  Achilles  promises  so  to  do,  and 
dashes  after  the  Trojans.  The  River  reproaches 
Apollo  for  abandoning  the  Trojans,  but  Apollo 
vouchsafes  no  reply,  and  appears  in  fact  to  be 
nowhere  near  at  hand.  Then  to  our  astonishment 
Achilles,  supposed  to  be  pursuing  the  Trojans  to 
the  town,  is  said  to  leap  into  the  stream,  which 
swells  up  high  and  all  but  drowns  him.  He 
escapes  on  the  roots  of  an  elm,  but  is  pursued 
by  the  River  over  the  Plain,  a  chase  which  is  very 
well  described,  but  which  anticipates  the  future 
description  of  the  rising  stream.  Achilles  is  again 
nearly  drowned,  when  Poseidon  and  Athene  in 
human  form  catch  him  each  by  a  hand  and  confirm 
him — how  ?  With  words ;  after  which  they  depart 
to  join  the  other  gods.  Here  the  interpolation 
ends,  and  the  genuine  poet  resumes  with  the  flood- 
ing of  the  Plain,  and  we  have  much  the  same 
thing  over  again,  except  that  at  the  close  the 
divine  intervention  is  effectual ;  for  Hera  sends 
Hephaestus  to  burn  up  the  stream  with  fire.  One 
part  is  a  repetition  or  expansion  of  the  other  by 


158     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

somebody  who  wanted  more  of  this  attractive 
episode.  I  will  end  by  quoting  the  words  of  Dr. 
Leaf:  "It  is  however  in  the  Fight  with  the  River, 
from  which  the  book  takes  its  name,  that  we  find 
the  real  crux.  As  to  the  wild  grandeur  of  this 
splendid  scene  there  cannot  be  two  opinions.  Yet 
our  complete  enjoyment  is  somewhat  marred  by 
a  want  of  clearness  in  the  motives,  which  may 
be  focussed  at  two  points.  The  first  of  these  is 
at  the  beginning,  211-27,  where  Skamandros  bids 
Achilles,  if  he  must  slay  the  Trojans,  to  slay 
them  on  the  plain ;  and  Achilles  replies  '  it  shall 
be  done  as  thou  biddest,  but  I  will  not  stop  till 
I  have  driven  them  to  the  city.'  So  far  all  is 
simple;  we  imagine  that  Achilles,  true  to  his 
promise,  has  left  the  river  and  attacked  the  fleeing 
Trojans  in  the  plain ;  if  the  narrative  continued 
with  540  we  could  not  find  anything  to  object 
to.  But  instead  of  this  we  first  have  a  passionate 
appeal  from  the  River  to  Apollo  (228-32),  and 
then  to  our  surprise  find  that  Achilles,  instead  of 
carrying  out  his  promise,  leaps  into  the  middle 
of  the  stream  (233).  This  undoubtedly  contradicts 
the  plain  sense  of  what  has  gone  before."  And 
again  about  the  other  difiiculty:  "In  284  Poseidon 
and  Athene  come  to  Achilles'  aid.  But  they 
confine  themselves  to  empty  promises.  They  tell 
Achilles  that  the  River  'will  soon  assuage,'  and  up 
to  304  we  seem  to  see  Achilles  in  a  fair  way  to  escape. 


BK.  SEVENTEEN  TO  TWENTY-FOUR    159 

But  in  305,  instead  of  assuaging,  Skamandros  grows 
'still  more  wroth/  and  all  but  overwhelms  the 
hero,  till  Hera  herself,  evidently  ignorant  of  her 
friends'  intervention,  is  *  sore  afraid '  for  Achilles 
(328),  and  takes  the  practical  step  which  the 
others  have  so  unaccountably  omitted."  These 
inconsistencies  are  removed  by  going  on  from  one 
avTap  6  ^rj  to  the  other,  which  gives  us  exactly 
our  300  lines.  And  so  we  finish  off  the  last  third 
part  of  the  Iliad. 


CHAPTER   IV 

BOOK  THE    SECOND,   BOOK   THE   FIRST, 
AND   CONCLUSION 

It  only  remains  to  deal  with  the  first  part  of  the 
Second  Book,  that  is,  Canto  III.  This  is  a  canto 
about  which  I  am  not  most  doubtful  myself,  but 
am  most  doubtful  about  convincing  the  reader,  as 
it  is  not  easy  to  explain  its  original  form,  in  so 
clear  a  way  that  he  can  grasp  its  constitution, 
without  reprinting  the  text.  I  have  therefore  left 
over  its  statement  to  the  last,  that  it  may  derive 
as  much  strength  as  possible  from  all  that  precede 
it.  There  are  483  lines  down  to  the  commence- 
ment of  the  Catalogue,  with  which  our  Canto  IV 
began ;  but  the  reader  will  perhaps  recollect  that 
we  transferred  the  29  verses  455-483,  which  con- 
tain the  six  similes  on  end,  from  their  position 
before  the  Catalogue  to  a  better  one  after  it,  which 
leaves  us  to  deal  with  454.  The  difficulties  of 
the  first  portion  of  the  book  are  only  too  well 
known ;  and  Dr.  Leaf  does  not  go  beyond  the 
mark  in  calling  it  "this  wonderful  medley  of  in- 
consistent and  self-contradictory  motives."  The  in- 
consequence centres  in  the  conduct  of  Agamemnon. 

z6o 


BKS.  SECOND  ^  FIRST  :  CONCLUSION     i6i 

A  baleful  dream  is  sent  to  him  by  Zeus,  bidding 
him  arm  his  host  with  all  haste,  for  the  gods 
are  agreed  to  let  the  town  of  Troy  be  taken  at 
once ;  a  passage,  by  the  way,  which  throws  a  doubt 
on  Mr.  Monro's  objection  to  VIII  550-552,  spoken 
of  above,  that  there  is  no  sign  of  any  such  agree- 
ment among  the  Olympian  gods. 

Well,  Agamemnon  awakes,  clothes  himself  in  a 
soft  tunic,  and  at  dawn  commands  the  heralds  to 
summon  an  assembly  of  the  Greeks.  But  first  of 
all  he  holds  a  privy  council  of  the  chiefs  near 
Nestor's  ship,  at  which  he  communicates  his  dream  ; 
repeating  almost  the  same  words  as  are  used  to 
describe  the  incident  itself,  but  adding  four  verses 
of  his  own,  in  which  he  proposes  arming  the 
Greeks,  but  first  "  to  tempt  them  with  words,  as  is 
right,"  and  command  them  to  fly  with  the  ships, 
while  the  other  chiefs  are  to  check  them  with 
words,  one  on  one  side  and  one  on  another.  Nestor 
rises  and  remarks,  that  had  any  other  Greek  but 
Agamemnon  mentioned  the  dream,  they  would 
disbelieve  him,  and  proposes  arming  the  Greeks; 
with  which  the  council  ends.  Well,  the  Greeks 
assemble,  and  up  gets  Agamemnon  with  his  famous 
sceptre  in  his  hand,  and  informs  them  that  Zeus 
has  utterly  disappointed  him,  and  orders  him  to 
return  inglorious  to  Greece,  since  he  has  lost  much 
people ;  using  word  for  word  the  same  8  verses  as 
he  uses  in  Book  IX  18-25,  ^^^^^  ^^^  ^^^^  defeat  of 

L 


1 62     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

the  Greeks.     He  then   goes  on   to  state   how  dis- 
creditable it  is  that  such  and  so  plentiful  a  people 
of  the    Greeks   should    fight    in    vain    against   the 
Trojans,   who   are  less  than  a  tenth  part  of  their 
number;  while  their  wives  and  children  have  been 
nine  years  awaiting  them  at  home,  and  their  ships 
and  ropes  have  rotted  away,  and  still  their  end  is 
unattained.     He  concludes  by  suggesting  that  they 
should  fly  with  the  ships  to  their  own  native  land, 
for  they  will  never  take  the  town  of  Troy ;  which 
3   verses   again    he  repeats   word   for  word  in   IX 
26-28,  after  the  first  Greek  defeat.     We  are  told 
that  he  stirred  the  spirit  of  all  amid  the  crowd,  as 
many  as  had  not  heard  of  the  council.     The  whole 
multitude    is   shaken ;    they  rush    shouting   to   the 
ships,  and   prepare   to   draw  them  down.     Athene 
descends  from  Olympus,  and  tells  Odysseus  to  stop 
them.       Odysseus,    accepting    the    suggestion    as   a 
divine    monition,    takes    the    sceptre    from    Aga- 
memnon's  hand.      Whenever    he    comes    across   a 
royal  and  eminent  man,  he  uses  persuasion,  among 
other  things  asking  whether  all  have  not  heard  what 
the  king  has  said  in  council,  or  else  saying  that  all 
have   not    heard    it ;    for   verse     1 94    is    construed 
either  way,  and  creates  a  difficulty  in  both :  either 
that  the  council  was  unusually  large,  which  is  not 
likely  at  so  short  a  notice ;  or  else  that  Agamemnon 
was  not  distinctly  heard,  which  is  improbable  if  it 
was  as  small  as  usual.     But  when  he  finds  a  common 


BKS.  SECOND  ^  FIRST  :  CONCLUSION     163 

man,  he  beats  him  with  the  sceptre,  and  advises  him 
to   sit   quiet   and    listen    to   others,    saying    that   a 
multitude  of  rulers  is  a  bad  thing ;  there  ought  to 
be  but  one  king,  but  one  ruler,  and   he  the  man 
appointed  by  Zeus.     And  so  they  are  brought  back 
to  the  assembly  again,   where  all  sit  down  except 
Thersites,  who  could  never  stop  talking,  and  who 
now  reviles  Agamemnon  to  the  secret  indignation 
of  the  Greeks,  and  ends  by  suggesting  the  very  same 
thing  as  the  king  had  suggested  before,  that  they 
should    all  go  home  with   the    ships,   saving    only 
that  they  should  leave  Agamemnon  at  Troy.     But 
Odysseus  soon  settles  him,  amid  general   applause, 
with   a    stroke    of    the    sceptre.     Then    up    arises 
Odysseus  himself,  and  delivers  a  lengthy  speech,  in 
which  he  reproves  the  Greeks  for  failing  in  allegi- 
ance to  their  king;  reminds  them  of  the  omen  of 
the  serpent  and  nine  sparrows,  which  he  declares  to 
have  been  witnessed  yesterday  or  the  day  before, 
when    the    ships   were    assembling    at   Aulis;    and 
concludes  by  exhorting  them    all  to   remain    until 
they  have  taken  the  town  of  Priam.     Then  Nestor 
follows,  with  words  to  the  like  effect,  but  ends  by 
advising    Agamemnon    to   separate    the    troops    by 
tribes  and  clans,  that  he  may  judge  who  is  a  bad 
leader  and  who  is  a  good.     Agamemnon  rejoins  with 
a  spirited  speech,  after  which  they  all  disperse  and 
take  their  morning  meal.     The  great    king   offers 
sacrifice  to  Zeus,  and  invites  the  greater  chiefs  to 


164     COMPOSITION   OF  THE  ILIAD 

partake  of  it,  which  all  of  them  do.  Nestor 
recommends  no  further  delay,  and  an  order  is  issued 
to  recommence  the  war. 

Such  is  the  extraordinary  train  of  events  springing 
out  of  the  dream  despatched  by  Zeus.  The  reader 
will  ask  at  once  why  Agamemnon,  with  that  divine 
assurance,  should  want  to  try  the  temper  of  his 
people  at  all.  Next,  the  result  turning  out  as  it 
does,  why  none  of  the  chiefs  in  council  have  a  word  to 
say  either  for  or  against,  not  even  Nestor,  who  speaks 
to  his  other  proposal  of  arming  the  Greeks.  Thirdly, 
why  Agamemnon,  in  his  speech  to  the  assembly, 
should  insist  on  the  disgrace  of  having  failed  in  their 
object,  and  then  suggest  a  step  which  is  not  only 
far  more  disgraceful  in  itself,  but  makes  success 
impossible.  Fourthly,  why  he  should  point  out  the 
fact  that  the  ships  are  rotten,  at  the  very  moment 
when  he  is  suggesting,  "what  is  only  right,"  that 
they  should  use  them.  Fifthly,  why  not  one  of  the 
chiefs  stirs  a  finger  to  stop  them,  until  Athene  tells 
Odysseus  to  do  the  very  thing  that  it  was  seemingly 
reserved  for  all  the  chiefs  to  do ;  and  why  it  needs 
an  injunction  of  the  goddess  to  put  it  into  the  head 
of  Odysseus.  Sixthly,  why  the  men  of  royal  birth, 
whoever  they  may  be,  are  involved  in  the  scandal. 
Seventhly,  why  the  vulgar  are  reproved  for  setting 
up  as  kings,  when  they  have  as  good  as  obeyed  a 
command  of  Agamemnon.  Eighthly,  why  Thersites, 
who  could  never  stop  talking,  has  not  a  word  to  say 


BKS.  SECOND  fc?  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     165 

until  the  second  assembly ;  and  why  he,  the  meanest 
of  all  the  Greeks,  is  made  to  propose  the  same 
measure  as  the  noblest  of  all,  Agamemnon;  and 
why  the  Greeks,  who  heard  it  with  approval  a  short 
time  before,  are  so  greatly  delighted  when  Thersites 
is  set  down.  Ninthly,  why  the  omen  of  the  serpent 
and  the  sparrows  is  regarded  as  so  recently  seen, 
when  it  took  place  nine  years  ago  at  Aulis.  Lastly, 
why  Nestor's  advice  to  separate  the  people  into 
tribes  and  clans,  in  order  that  ,the  merits  of  the 
leaders  may  be  known,  is  considered  as  accepted, 
when  the  leaders  never  observe  the  rule  throughout 
the  rest  of  the  poem. 

There  must  be  something  wrong  about  this.  And 
surely  it  is  not  hard  to  lay  our  finger  on  the  spot. 
When  we  find  that  the  reckless  suggestion  of  Aga- 
memnon is  contained  in  exactly  the  same  1 1  verses 
as  are  used  in  propounding  it  in  the  Ninth  Book,  at 
a  time  when  it  is  natural  and  proper,  we  begin  to 
suspect  that  it  was  not  made  at  all ;  and  that  the 
perfunctory  council  in  which  it  is  arranged,  where 
16  of  the  33  verses  are  a  mere  repetition  of  others 
earlier  in  the  book,  and  most  of  the  remainder  occur 
in  other  parts  of  the  poem,  is  a  contamination  devised 
to  bring  it  in ;  and  that  Agamemnon  never  told  his 
dream  any  more  than  Priam  told  Hecuba  what  Iris 
said  to  him  about  the  invisible  Hermes.  The  same 
suggestion  to  draw  down  the  ships  is  made  in  other 
words  at  Book  XIV  65-81,  where  it  is  even  more 


1 66     COMPOSITION  OF  THE   ILIAD 

natural  and  proper  than  in  the  Ninth ;  but  it  borders 
on  the  ridiculous  that  he  should  make  it  thrice,  and 
here  it  is  neither  proper  nor  natural.  Cut  out  the 
whole  council  in  verses  53-85,  and  you  will  see  that 
the  verse  above  adapts  itself  to  the  verse  below  with 
perfect  fitness, 

ol  fJL€v  €K7]pv(ra'ov,  Tol  S'  riydpovro  fid\'  (5/ca 
(rKrjTrTOV)(OL  /^a(riXrje<s'  erreo-crcvovTO  Se  Aaot, 

and  so  we  are  into  the  assembly  at  once.  Cut  out 
the  8  repeated  verses  111-118  and  the  3  repeated 
verses  1 39-141,  in  which  the  suggestion  of  flight  is 
proposed,  and  then  see  how  the  speech  of  Agamem- 
non runs.  It  turns  out  to  be  a  strong  appeal  to  the 
Greeks  to  put  the  work  through  at  once,  on  the 
ground  of  disgrace  in  not  having  done  it  long  before, 
instead  of  a  weak  argument  for  running  away ;  and 
the  notice  of  the  rotten  ships  becomes  significant  and 
apt.  But  the  reader,  who  may  not  be  familiar  with 
minute  points  of  Homeric  style,  will  perhaps  be  sur- 
prised that,  after  the  first  formal  line  of  address,  he 
goes  on  with  ala-^pov  yap.  But  this  is  the  habit  when 
either  an  abrupt  or  a  tentative  tone  is  assumed  by  the 
speaker;  and  so  Nestor  begins,  after  a  like  formal 
line,  with  iroWoi  yap  in  VII  328  ;  and  so  Achilles 
uses  it  in  I  123  and  293.  Yes,  but  why  should  the 
king  assume  a  tentative  tone,  when  the  dream  has 
arrived  to  render  him  positive  ?  The  secret  is  divined 
by  Dr.  Leaf:  "  On  the  meeting  of  the  army  Thersites, 


BKS.  SECOND  ^  FIRST  :  CONCLUSION     167 

before  anyone  else  can  speak,  rises  and  attacks  Aga- 
memnon for  his  lustful  greed  in  terms  strictly  appro- 
priate  to   the   occasion;    87-99    were   immediately 
followed  by  212-42."     In  other  words,  the  scene 
with  Thersites  precedes  Agamemnon's  speech.    That 
is  why  Thersites  is  described  as  an  immeasurable 
chatterbox;    and    because  he  always  says  what   he 
imagines   will   amuse    the    Greeks,   he    is   taken    as 
representative  of  the  feeling  of  the  moment,  after 
the  nine  days'  plague  and  the  quarrel  with  Achilles ; 
and  because  he  proposes  their  running  away,  that 
is  why  Agamemnon,  when   he   rises,   speaks  in  so 
chastened  a  mood,  and  remarks  that  the  ships  are 
rotten.     But  I  do  it  in  a  rather  different  way  from 
Dr.  Leaf.     For  I  take  the  whole  of  the  scene  with 
Thersites,  from  oXXol  jnev  p  el^ovro  in  2 1 1   down  to 
cog  (pda-av  ^  TrXrjOvs  in  278,  and  place  it  after  98  (not 
99),  with  which  it  coheres  very  well.     The  result  is 
that  the  heralds  first  stop  the  bustle  and  noise  in  the 
assembly,  in  order  that  the  kings  may  get  a  hearing. 
Then  all  the  rest  sit  still,  but  Thersites  alone  chatters 
on.    He  reviles  Agamemnon  and  advises  their  running 
away,  until  he  is  silenced  by  Odysseus,  an  achieve- 
ment which  the  people  applaud.    Then  after  w?  cpda-av 
tj  TrXrjOus  I   continue  with  ciJ^a  ^e  Kpeiwv  ^ Ayajuiejuivcov  in 
100,    instead    of  dvd   S^    6   7rTo\iiropQo<s   ^OSuacrevg^   as 
now  it  is ;  and  so  comes  in  Agamemnon's  speech, 
in  the  silence  won  for  him  by  Odysseus,  and  so  it 
takes  its  tone  from  the  bitter  attack  of  Thersites. 


i68     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

Well,  the  king  concludes  his  speech,  as  amended 
above,  and  it  is  said  to  stir  the  hearts  of  all  amid  the 
crowd,  Tracri  lULera  irKriQuv :  and  here  it  is  that  I  go  on 
with  ava  S'  6  irTo\liropOo<s  'O^uo-o-eJ?,  placing  it  after 
the  very  same  word  irXtjOu^  as  stands  before  it  now, 
but  in  a  different  context.  But  next  to  TrXtjOvv  now 
there  is  oa-oi  ov  ^ovXrjg  eiraKova-av^  he  Stirred  the  hearts 
of  all  in  the  crowd,  as  many  as  had  not  heard  of  the 
council ;  which  is  absurd  in  itself,  for  none  of  the 
commonalty  could  have  heard  of  what  happened  in 
the  council,  so  that  their  hearts  could  not  have  been 
unstirred  on  that  account.  Besides,  we  have  cut 
out  all  about  the  council,  and  this  must  follow  it 
too.  And  here  begins  the  long  interpolation  which 
was  beyond  a  doubt  the  motive  of  the  whole.  For 
after  falsely  making  Agamemnon  urge  their  all  going 
home  to  Greece,  the  word  opive  is  taken  in  the  sense 
of  stirring  them  to  fly ;  whereas,  when  his  speech  is 
truly  given  as  above,  it  means  that  he  stirred  them 
to  a  sense  of  their  duty,  and  shamed  the  discontent 
revealed  by  the  slanders  of  Thersites.  However  our 
interpolator,  once  resolved  that  they  should  fly,  and 
having  next  thrust  into  the  king's  speech  the  borrowed 
verses,  so  as  to  bring  it  about,  fly  they  do  in  the 
following  lines,  or  rather  set  out  to  do  so,  until 
Odysseus  at  the  word  of  Athene  goes  round  and 
hunts  them  back  to  the  assembly  at  verse  210, 
where  the  scene  with  Thersites  now  comes  in,  which 
we  moved  higher  up  before  the  rising  of  Agamemnon; 


BKS.  SECOND  &f  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     169 

and  after  it  comes  the  rising  of  Odysseus,  which  we 
placed  just  after  Agamemnon's  speech.  So  that  we 
exclude  first  of  all  the  council,  in  which  the  tempta- 
tion of  the  people  is  proposed,  next  the  verses  in 
which  the  flight  is  suggested  to  the  people,  and  lastly 
the  breaking  up  of  the  assembly  and  the  flight  itself; 
and  we  have  one  continuous  assembly,  in  which  the 
scene  with  Thersites  is  followed  by  the  speech  of 
Agamemnon,  and  after  him  Odysseus  speaks,  and 
after  Odysseus  speaks  Nestor.  And  when  we  have 
so  done,  we  have  removed  the  first  8  of  the  ob- 
jections stated  above  by  removing  the  passages  on 
which  they  are  founded.  The  scene  of  the  flight 
is  a  capital  one  in  itself;  and  the  similes  in  144-149, 
which  describe  the  gradual  commotion  of  the  assembly, 
have  always  seemed  to  me  as  good  as  any  in  the  poem. 
I  have  tried  every  way  to  save  the  scene  by  introduc- 
ing it  at  what  might  seem  its  natural  place,  in  the 
Ninth  Book,  after  the  same  words  of  Agamemnon 
as  are  used  to  open  it  here ;  but  it  deranges  every- 
thing there,  where  all  works  well  without  it.  And 
you  will  observe  that  there  is  the  same  pithy  sen- 
tentious turn  in  the  words  of  Odysseus,  ovk  ayaOov 
TToXvKoipavlri^  as  we  noticed  in  his  speech  at  XIX  216- 
237  ;  and  as  that  speech,  with  the  speech  of  Achilles 
before  it,  was  apparently  designed  as  alternative  to 
the  two  which  precede,  so  this  scene  of  the  breaking 
up  of  the  assembly  was  perhaps  designed  as  an  alter- 
native to  the  scene  with  Thersites.    But  the  inclusion 


I70     COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

of  both  has  caused  the  dislocation  of  the  last,  and  has 
produced  a  hopeless  inconsequence  in  the  motives,  in 
the  words,  and  in  the  actions  of  Agamemnon. 

And  now  for  the  numerical  effect  of  these  changes. 
First  of  all  we  cut  out  the  33  verses  about  the 
council;  then  the  single  line  and  a  half  99-100 
ending  with  TravcrdjULevoi  KXayyrjg^  which  was  set  in  front 
of  ava  oe  Kpelwv  ^AyajuiijuLpoyi/^  when  w?  (pd(rap  t}  TrXrjOug 
was  taken  from  before  it,  in  transferring  thence  the 
scene  with  Thersites;  next  the  11  verses  in  which 
the  flight  is  suggested  ;  and  lastly  the  other  half  line, 
o(Toi  ov  ^ovXrjg  eTroLKovorav^  with  the  67  lines  that 
follow  it,  which  depict  the  scene  of  the  flight. 
The  sum  total  is  33  +  i|-+  11  +67I  =  113.  Deduct 
113  from  454,  which  was  our  residual  number  after 
transposing  the  similes,  and  we  have  341  left.  By 
removing  the  odd  41  verses  we  remove  our  two 
remaining  objections.  The  first  relates  to  the  story 
of  the  serpent  and  the  sparrows,  verses  299-330  in 
the  speech  of  Odysseus,  where  the  portent  is  said 
to  have  appeared  x^^^^  '^^  '^"^  '^P^^^'^y  3.  day  or  two 
before  ;  which  with  the  largest  allowance  of  time  will 
scarce  take  us  back  nine  years  to  the  muster  of  the 
fleet  at  Aulis,  where  it  is  said  to  have  happened. 
So  that  time  and  place  conflict  in  this  account,  which 
evidently  belonged  to  some  moment  of  discourage- 
ment earlier  in  the  war,  to  which  also  may  pertain 
the  scene  of  inceptive  flight.  The  beginning  of  the 
story  is  clearly  marked  at  verse  299  and  the  end  at 


BKS.  SECOND  ^  FIRST  :  CONCLUSION     171 

verse  330,  which  is  repeated  at  XIV  48  in  conclud- 
ing an  account  of  Hector's  words,  as  here  an  account 
of  the  words  of  Calchas.  We  leave  in  the  last  two 
verses  of  the  speech,  which  are  apposite  to  what  was 
said  before,  and  fitly  close  the  allocution  of  Odys- 
seus, long  enough  in  17  verses  without  the  other  32. 
The  remaining  9  come  out  of  Nestor's  speech, 
verses  360-368,  in  which  he  counsels  the  separation 
of  the  people  into  tribes  and  clans,  that  the  worth  of 
the  leaders  may  be  known.  Some  motive  was  sup- 
plied for  their  insertion  by  the  following  Catalogue, 
in  which  the  tribes  are  enumerated  under  their 
several  leaders;  but  this  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  proposing  that  the  leaders  should  fight  each 
apart  with  his  separate  tribe.  And  if  it  was  in- 
tended to  glorify  Nestor,  as  seems  to  be  the  motive 
of  this  and  other  interpolations  in  his  speeches,  it 
fails  of  its  eflFect ;  for  none  of  them  observe  his  rule, 
but  each  stands  near  and  helps  the  other.  The 
verses  all  vanish  as  clean  as  you  please;  and  the 
speech  of  Nestor  ends  much  better  with  the  threat 
against  anyone  else  who,  like  Thersites,  should 
suggest  their  running  away,  Oavarov  kol  ttot/ulov 
iiria-Trr].  Then  the  assembly  closes  with  the  spirited 
words  of  Agamemnon,  which,  as  Dr.  Leaf  affirms, 
"  are  chiefly  remarkable  for  the  fact  that  they  do 
not  show  the  least  consciousness,  much  less  contain 
any  explanation,  of  the  diametrically  opposite  tone 
which  the  king  of  men  had  employed  when  last  on 


172     COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

his  feet " ;  which  is  true,  if  his  former  speech  con- 
tained a  suggestion  of  flight,  but  is  not  true,  when  it 
makes  an  appeal  to  the  host  to  stay  and  fight  it  out. 
So  much  for  Canto  III. 

And  now  we  have  finished  off  the  whole  of  the 
Iliad ;  but  while  we  are  so  near  the  beginning  of 
the  poem,  I  will  ask  the  reader  to  turn  back  for  one 
moment  to  Book  the  First.  It  is  well  known  that  there 
occurs  a  bad  discrepancy  of  time  between  our  first  and 
second  cantos,  that  is,  between  what  precedes  and  fol- 
lows verse  311.  At  verse  424  Thetis  tells  Achilles  that 
Zeus  went  "  yesterday ''  to  visit  the  blameless  Ethio- 
pians, and  that  all  the  gods  accompanied  him ;  for 
which  reason  she  cannot  urge  on  him  at  once  her  suit  to 
avenge  Achilles*  wrongs.  But  yesterday  Apollo  was 
shooting  his  shafts  at  the  Greeks,  and  on  this  very 
day  he  is  to  be  found  at  Chryse,  as  we  learn  from 
verse  474 ;  and  on  the  same  day  that  Thetis  is 
speaking  Athene  has  entered  the  assembly  at  verse 
1 94,  despatched  from  heaven  by  Hera,  and  returns 
to  Olympus  to  join  the  other  deities  at  verse  222. 
Now  if  the  poet  had  left  the  matter  alone,  we  might 
imagine  that  the  gods  have  the  power  of  being 
present  in  all  places  at  all  times,  and  the  lapse 
might  possibly  pass.  But  he  cannot  at  once  enjoy 
the  benefit  of  our  belief,  and  ask  us  also  to  believe 
that  the  reason  why  Thetis  postpones  her  request  is 
that  Zeus  is  nowhere  about.  Here  is  an  incon- 
sistency, if  ever  there  was  one ;  and  what  are  we  to 


BKS.  SECOND  ^  FIRST  :  CONCLUSION     173 

do  ?  Well,  in  the  first  place  it  does  not  touch  our 
view  of  the  poem  in  particular,  but  affects  all  others, 
I  think,  except  that  of  Lachmann  and  those  which 
are  derived  from  him,  and  which  indeed  are  mainly 
founded  upon  it.  Lachmann  dissected  the  Iliad  into 
a  number  of  lays,  composed  apart  by  various  authors, 
the  first  of  which  he  terminated  at  verse  347,  before 
the  contradiction  occurs.  His  general  view  is  so 
indefensible  in  itself,  and  is  so  much  out  of  fashion 
at  present,  that  words  would  be  wasted  in  attacking 
it;  but  this  special  difficulty  it  does  avoid.  But 
almost  every  other  opinion  is  involved  in  it.  For 
almost  all  the  rest  are  agreed  that  the  First  Book  is 
to  lay  the  foundation  of  the  following  story,  and 
then  either  they  must  stomach  a  contradiction,  in 
which  case  they  forfeit  their  right  to  disintegrate 
the  poem,  when  similar  repugnancies  afflict  them 
later  on ;  or  else  hold  that  it  arises  from  working 
over  the  poem,  which  renders  it  vain  to  argue  about 
its  original  form,  as  there  is  no  beginning  or  middle 
or  end  to  such  work.  So  that  if  the  reader  has 
hitherto  digested  the  difficulty,  he  may  now  repeat 
the  process  upon  accepting  our  theory  as  well  as 
another.  But  if  he  should  feel,  like  myself,  that  such 
inconsistencies  mar  his  enjoyment ;  if  he  find  it  hard 
to  believe  that  any  man  working  with  a  free  hand 
would  lightly  commit  so  gratuitous  a  fault ;  if  he 
perceives  that  the  canon  of  reasoning  about  the 
author's  intention  is  itself  destroyed,  when  a  contra- 


174     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

diction  of  this  kind  is  permitted  to  pass ;  if,  finally, 
Bentley*s  remark  keeps  sounding  in  his  ears,  that  a 
mistake  about  time  is  the  surest  way  of  detecting  a 
cheat ;  then  perhaps  we  may  come  to  an  agreement 
that  it  ought  to  be  changed. 

Now  long  before  the  particular  view  that  I  am 
advocating  ever  entered  my  head,  I  had  frequently 
thought  that  the  difficulty  could  be  turned,  and  a 
blow  be  dealt  to  the  theory  of  Lachmann,  by  using 
a  pair  of  simple  expedients.  Let  us  place  the  episode 
of  the  voyage  of  Odysseus  to  Chryse,  with  the 
restoration  of  Chryseis,  before  the  taking  away  of 
Briseis  by  Agamemnon's  heralds,  and  Achilles'  inter- 
view with  Thetis.  In  other  words,  instead  of  fol- 
lowing on  after  w?  ol  imev  to,  irivovro  Kara  (TTparov  in 
verse  318  with  ov^'  ^ Ayafxeixvwv^  let  us  follow  on 
with  avTOLp  'OSv(T(T€vg  m  verse  430.  We  have  learnt 
to  regard  such  transpositions  as  possible ;  and 
surely  this  one  no  sooner  is  seen  than  it  confirms 
itself  For  there  is  at  once  an  excellent  contrast 
between  what  is  being  done  Kara  a-rparov  and  what 
is  about  to  be  done  Kara  ^pvcr^v^  if  the  phrase  be 
possible ;  whereas  now  there  is  none,  when  the 
cleansing  of  the  camp  and  Agamemnon's  activity 
take  place  Kara  crrpaTov  alike.  And,  again,  it  is 
surely  natural  that  the  king  should  put  off  his 
other  business  until  after  this  sacred  day  of  atone- 
ment, and  should  wait  to  be  told  that  all  was  right 
with    heaven,    before    proceeding   with   his    secular 


BKS.  SECOND  ^  FIRST:   CONCLUSION     175 

affairs;  which  he  could  not  know  until  after  the 
return  of  Odysseus,  when  he  hears  that  Apollo  has 
accepted  the  hecatomb,  and  is  emboldened  thereby 
to  proceed  against  Achilles. 

Well,  Odysseus  sails  to  Chryse,  sleeps  the  night, 
and  returns  next  morning  at  verse  487.  Then  fol- 
low the  five  verses  488-492,  which  inform  us  that 
Achilles  sat  all  the  while  in  anger  at  the  ships,  and 
went  no  more  either  to  the  assembly  or  the  war, 
being  wounded  in  his  pride  by  Agamemnon.  And 
then  comes  in  the  further  provocation  of  him  by 
the  king's  removal  of  Briseis,  which  drives  him  to 
appeal  to  his  mother  for  redress  by  getting  the 
Greeks  defeated,  instead  of  his  simply  withdrawing 
from  the  war ;  and  thus  the  design  of  Zeus  is  set 
afoot.     So  that  here  is  the  right  place  for 

ov8'  *Aya[X€iiv(i)v 
\rjy'  cpiSoSf  rrfv  TrpCrrov  eTrrjTretX-qcr^  'A^lXtjIj 

and  it  instantly  gives  irpcorov  a  proper  force,  which 
it  has  not  now,  when  the  outrage  of  the  king  follows 
almost  at  once  upon  the  quarrel  in  the  assembly. 
But  here  a  hitch  occurs,  which  calls  for  our  second 
expedient.  When  the  voyage  of  Odysseus  was 
placed  after  the  interview  of  Achilles  with  Thetis, 
which  ended  by  telling  us  that  she  left  him 

XCDO/Acvov  Kara  Ovixhv  eiifwvoto  yvvaiKos, 

the  diasceuast  wanted  two  thirds  of  a  verse  to  go  in 


176     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

front  of  avrap  'OSva-a-ev?.  And  SO  he  put  in  tj/i/  pa 
pin  acKovTog  oLTrrjvpcov^  which  five  words  have  two 
objections  against  them.  First,  it  is  very  unUke  the 
poet  to  say  in  a  vague  manner,  "whom  they  took 
away,"  meaning  the  heralds  Talthybius  and  Eury- 
bates,  who  have  not  been  alluded  to  anywhere  near ; 
but  he  would  put  in  ot  ye,  or  better  still  KripvKeg,  as 
it  is  40  verses  above,  if  not  the  names  themselves. 
Then,  again,  one  may  notice  that  ^Iti  aexovrog  is  a 
twofold  expression,  doubly  insistent,  which  ought 
properly  to  mean,  I  believe,  that  Achilles  had  re- 
sisted, or  had  only  submitted  to  force,  as  Antinous 
uses  it  in  Odyss.  IV  646  ;  whereas  he  resigns  her  to 
the  heralds  with  the  utmost  courtesy  and  freedom, 
mortally  offended  with  Agamemnon  as  he  is  for 
putting  the  service  upon  them.  Hence  I  hold  these 
words  to  be  false,  and  suppose  the  interview  to  con- 
clude with  verse  429  as  quoted  above;  after  which 
should  come  verse  493, 

dW  6t€  S-q  pi*  €K  Toto  SvwSeKarry  yevcr'  ijws. 

Nor  have  we  any  need  for  the  words,  having  put 
avrap  ^OSuara-evg,  together  with  the  episode  of  the 
voyage,  after  w?  ol  /mev  ra  irevovro  Kara  a-rparov.  But 
now  at  the  conclusion  of  the  voyage,  and  after  the 
five  verses  about  Achilles,  we  do  require  some  words 
to  go  before  ovS'  ^ Ay ajuie/uLvwv^  which  held  the  other 
place.  And  this  I  believe  to  be  the  sole  phrase  lost 
in  the  whole  of  Homer,  not  counting  conjectural 


BKS.  SECOND  &  FIRST:   CONCLUSION     177 

alterations  of  particular  words;  and  that  loss  was 
caused  by  changing  the  place  of  avrap  'O^vo-o-eJ?,  before 
which  the  false  phrase  was  inserted  and  the  other 
one  struck  out.  But  it  is  not  hard  to  guess  what 
the  missing  words  were.  They  were  the  regular 
summary  of  the  paragraph  above  it,  which  begins 
avrap  6  /JLrjvie  vrjval  Traprj/mevog^  SO  that  after  verse  492 
we  should  doubtless  go  on  with 

ws  o  ye  fJirjvLe  VYjv(rl  irapT^fievo^'  ovS'  *Aya/A€/iva>v 
X.rjy^  €/)i8os, 

which  makes  a  very  distinct  contrast  between  the  im^vig 
of  Achilles  and  the  epK}  of  Agamemnon,  the  resent- 
ment aroused  by  the  original  affront  and  the  further 
provocation  of  him  here,  which  makes  Achilles  appeal 
to  his  mother.     And  so  we  preserve  our  300  lines. 

And  now  where  do  we  stand  with  respect  to  the 
difficulty  about  time?  It  has  all  disappeared,  and 
another  one  too,  which  I  did  not  mention  before. 
The  assembly  is  dissolved,  and  Odysseus  goes  to 
Chryse,  sleeps  the  night,  and  returns  next  morning. 
Achilles,  we  are  next  told,  continued  sitting  wrath- 
ful at  the  ships,  and  never  went  to  the  assembly  nor 
the  war.  Nor  did  Agamemnon  give  over  his  strife, 
but  sent  the  heralds  to  take  away  Briseis,  as  at  first 
he  threatened  to  do.  Achilles  appeals  to  his  mother 
for  redress,  and  she  tells  him  that  it  cannot  be  done 
just  at  once,  for  Zeus  and  all  the  gods  went  away 
to  Ethiopia   yesterday,   and   will    not  be    back    for 

M 


178     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

another  twelve  days.  When  the  twelfth  day  from 
that  arrives,  she  soars  to  Olympus  and  intercedes 
with  Zeus.  Now  the  period  during  which  Achilles 
sat  in  anger  at  the  ships  is  indefinite,  and  we  may 
imagine  it  as  long  as  we  like ;  which  at  once  pro- 
vides plenty  of  time  for  the  gods  to  go  away.  But 
take  it  to  signify  no  more  than  the  day  of  Odysseus' 
return,  and  that  the  removal  of  Briseis  occurs  the 
same  day,  as  well  as  the  interview  of  Achilles  with 
Thetis,  which  I  rather  think  that  the  poet  meant ; 
yet  her  use  of  yesterday  is  quite  correct.  Apollo 
gets  his  hecatomb  at  Chryse  the  day  before,  delights 
at  the  sound  of  the  psalm  which  is  sung  all  day, 
and  goes  off  just  before  sunset  (as  it  seems  from 
474-475)  with  all  the  gods  to  Ethiopia.  And 
although  he  is  said  to  send  the  voyagers  a  favourable 
wind  on  their  way  back  next  morning,  still  the  poet 
has  allowed  for  it  at  verse  479,  by  giving  him  his 
apposite  title  cKaepyog,  working  from  afar.  And 
now  we  see  clearly  what  the  twelfth  day  ck  toIo 
means,  namely  from  the  day  on  which  Thetis  speaks 
to  Achilles.  But  in  our  common  texts,  in  which 
the  voyage  and  return  of  Odysseus  come  between 
the  phrase  and  the  speaking  of  Thetis,  there  is  a  day 
too  many  for  the  reckoning  of  Thetis,  or  else  e/c  rolo 
must  be  referred  back  over  the  day  of  Odysseus' 
return  to  the  day  before ;  which  is  unlike  the  poet's 
usage,  as  may  be  seen  from  XXIV  31,  where  the 
identical  line  is  used  again. 


BKS.  SECOND  &  FIRST  :  CONCLUSION     179 

There  remains  one  small  point  to  be  settled.  In 
verse  390  Achilles  uses  the  present  tense  ire/uLTrova-iv 
in  telling  his  mother  that  the  Greeks  send  gifts 
to  Chryse;  which  might  seem  to  import  that  the 
mission  is  still  going  on,  whereas  on  our  view  it 
is  over  before  his  meeting  with  Thetis.  But  he 
is  telling  the  whole  story  of  the  quarrel,  and  it 
is  a  historic  present  tense,  employed  for  rapid  or 
vivid  effect,  as  seems  to  be  shown  by  the  next 
words  v€ov  KKidlriOev  e/3ai/,  which  he  uses  of  the 
heralds,  implying  that  the  other  event  is  more 
remote.  But  perhaps  it  is  safer  to  argue  that  he 
had  not  yet  heard  of  Odysseus'  return. 

Now  what  was  the  reason  of  this  dislocation } 
My  belief  is  that  it  was  due  to  the  man  who  put 
an  additional  day  into  the  poem  for  the  Building 
of  the  Wall,  which  made  it  a  desirable  thing  to 
save  a  day  elsewhere.  For  by  placing  the  voyage 
of  Odysseus  after  the  interview  with  Thetis,  and 
referring  e/c  toIo  not  to  the  day  of  his  return,  but 
over  it  to  the  day  on  which  Thetis  spoke,  as  you 
can  at  a  pinch,  you  include  the  day  of  his  return 
among  the  twelve,  so  that  it  need  not  be  separately 
reckoned.  He  thus  respected  the  poet's  scheme 
of  55  days;  but  he  did  not  respect,  or  else  did 
not  know,  another  feature  of  this  scheme,  which 
is  that  you  can  divide  it  up  into  5  periods  of  1 1 
days  each,  without  infringing  on  one  of  the  3 
spaces  of  9  days,  which  are  not  in  any  way  par- 


< 


h 
O 


pq 
H 


> 

Days. 
Nine  days' 
fetching  wood     ^ 

Pyre  of  Hector       i 

Tombof  Hec-) 

tor                 J>...i 
Feasting          ) 

II 

> 

Days. 
Nine  days'  dispute  ) 
of  gods                 )    '••  ^ 

Decision  inOlympus  ) 
Exodus  of  Priam       )•" 

Return    of    Priam) 
Wailing  for  Hector)     "  ^ 

II 

- 

Days. 
Return  of  gods  ) 
Design  of  Zeus  )         " 

First  day  of  battle  ) 
Trojan  agora         )      ••" 

Burning  of  dead  ) 
Feasting  all  night  )      *"  ^ 

Second  day  of  battle  ) 
Embassy  to  Achilles  )"" 

Third  day  of  battle  ) 
Forging  of  armour)*" 

Career  of  Achilles    ) 
Vision  of  Patroclus  )  *•' 

Pyre  of  Patroclus  ) 
Winds  all   night)      -  * 

Games  of  Patroclus  ) 
Unrest  of  Achilles)  •-  ^ 

Abuse  of  Hector's  ) 

corpse                 )      •••  3 

II 

- 

Days. 
Gods  in  Ethiopia         ii 

II 

1— 1 

Days. 
Nine  days'  plague            9 

Assembly  and  quarrel ) 
Odysseus  at  Chryse      ) 

Return  of  Odysseus  ) 
Achilles  and  Thetis  f       ^ 

II 

I 


BKS.  SECOND  &?  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     i8i 

ticularised,  but  are  covered  by  the  word  evvrjfiap. 
I  adjoin  a  table  of  this  scheme,  marking  only  such 
incidents  as  are  necessary  to  distinguish  the  days 
and,  whenever  it  is  possible,  the  nights. 

On  this  table  I  will  make  a  few  remarks.  First 
of  all,  when  the  poet  says  e/c  toIo  SvcoSeKOLTij^  I  take 
it  in  what  seems  the  natural  way,  namely,  the 
twelfth  day  after  and  exclusive  of  the  period  de- 
noted by  Toio.  There  is  thus  an  interval  of  1 1  days 
clear,  between  the  one  on  which  Thetis  speaks  and 
the  one  on  which  the  gods  are  again  in  Olympus, 
during  which  they  are  either  in  Ethiopia  or  else 
on  the  way  to  and  fro.  All  is  simple  until  we 
come  to  the  same  expression  again  in  Book  XXIV 
31,  where  I  take  it  in  the  selfsame  way,  after 
and  exclusive  of  the  day  which  begins  at  verse  12, 
when  Hector's  body  is  first  abused  by  Achilles. 
There  is  thus  an  interval  of  1 1  days  clear  between 
that  day  and  the  one  on  which  Apollo  speaks  up 
for  Hector,  which  eventually  leads  to  the  Exodus 
of  Priam.  Now  we  know  from  verse  107  how 
the  last  9  of  these  days  were  occupied,  namely, 
by  disputation  among  the  gods  about  the  conduct 
of  Achilles;  so  that  there  remain  2  days  of  this 
interval  about  which  nothing  is  explicitly  said.  But 
I  think  that  the  poet  would  have  us  understand 
that  they  are  devoted  like  the  first  to  maltreatment 
of  Hector's  corpse;  so  that  I  have  added  them 
on   to  the  first,   making   3   days  of  abusive  treat- 


1 82     COMPOSITION  OF  THE   ILIAD 

ment,  and  have  tabled  the  nine  days'  dispute  apart, 
as  directed  by  the  word  ivi/tjimap  at  107;  thus  dividing 
up  the  whole  interval  covered  by  SvooSeKarrj.  The 
poet  says,  indeed,  that  Achilles  dragged  the  body 
thrice  around  the  tomb  of  Patroclus;  but  he  does 
not  definitely  say  that  it  was  done  on  each  of  the 
three  days,  which  would  have  compelled  us  to 
reckon  SvajSeKarrj  from  the  last.  As  it  is,  we  reckon 
it  from  the  day  which  is  expressly  named.  Next, 
it  is  not  quite  clear  whether  the  day  of  Priam's 
return  ought  or  ought  not  to  be  counted  among 
the  nine  days  which  follow.  At  XXIV  664  Priam 
asks  Achilles  for  9  days  in  which  to  mourn  for 
Hector,  but  it  is  not  stated  whether  they  begin 
on  the  day  of  Priam's  return  or  on  the  morning 
after  it.  It  is  true  that  some  wailing  takes  place 
as  soon  as  Priam  gets  back,  which  looks  as  if 
that  day  ought  to  be  included.  But  this  seems 
to  be  only  the  first  outburst  of  grief  from  the  kin- 
dred at  the  sight  of  Hector's  corpse ;  for  the  word 
evvrjixap  in  verse  784,  taken  in  connection  with  the 
same  word  in  verse  664,  appears  to  mean  a  new 
nine  days  starting  after  the  day  of  Priam's  return, 
during  which  we  may  suppose  the  public  wailing 
to  go  on,  while  the  wood  is  being  fetched  for 
the  pyre.  And  there  is  a  circumstance  which  justi- 
fies this  view.  Priam  asks  also  for  a  tenth  day 
on  which  to  bury  Hector  and  feast  the  folk;  and 
an   eleventh  day  on  which   to   make   a   tomb   for 


BKS.  SECOND  ^  FIRST  :  CONCLUSION     183 

Hector.  But  we  find  in  the  end,  at  verses  788-802, 
that  the  feast  takes  place  on  the  eleventh  day, 
not  on  the  tenth.  So  that  the  arrangement  with 
Achilles  is  not  to  be  construed  by  the  letter;  and 
then  we  may  allow  the  generosity  of  Achilles  and 
the  misery  of  Priam  the  benefit  of  the  doubt.  By 
tabling  the  days  as  I  have  done,  we  can  divide 
up  the  period  of  55  days  into  5  periods  of  11 
days  so  neatly,  the  middle  one  being  more  detailed 
than  the  pair  on  either  side,  that  I  am  persuaded 
that  the  poet's  scheme  was  such  as  I  have  drawn. 
Finally,  if  we  count  in  another  day  at  the  end, 
which  is  not  a  part  of  the  time  of  the  poem,  but 
is  mentioned  at  verse  667  as  the  one  on  which 
the  fighting  is  to  recommence,  we  shall  have  56 
days,  that  is,  eight  of  our  weeks  or  four  of  our 
fortnights,  which  is  an  easy  way  to  remember  it. 

I  next  insert  (opposite  p.  184)  a  Table  of  Cantos  of 
the  Iliad,  accounting  for  every  verse  in  it,  and  ex- 
hibiting the  results  of  our  previous  discussion.  It 
is  arranged  in  three  parallel  columns,  according  to 
the  three  grand  divisions  of  the  poem.  Each  of 
the  columns  is  subdivided  into  another  three,  the 
first  of  which  shows  the  Canto ;  the  next  the  verses 
of  the  Book  or  Books  which  compose  it,  together 
with  all  those  that  are  to  be  eliminated ;  and  the 
last  the  total  number  of  lines  in  each  case,  together 
with  the  number  that  are  to  be  subtracted,  and 
the   result,    which    of   course   is   always    300.     In 


1 84     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

the  second  sub-columns  I  place  at  the  top  of  each 
compartment  all  the  verses  down  to  the  end  of  the 
Canto  or  the  end  of  the  Book,  whichever  comes  first, 
and  underneath  them  I  print  in  italics  the  verses 
which  are  excised ;  but  if  the  end  of  the  Book  come 
first,  there  I  stop  and  dismiss  the  verses  excised, 
before  going  on  with  the  verses  of  the  following 
Book  which  are  wanted  to  complete  the  Canto. 
When  a  fraction  is  placed  before  an  integer  in  the 
second  sub-columns,  it  signifies  that  so  much  is  to  be 
taken  out  of  the  verse  above  that  denoted  by  the  in- 
tegral number ;  and  when  it  is  placed  after  it,  that 
so  much  is  to  be  taken  out  of  the  verse  below.  The 
fractions  are  those  of  a  verse  of  6  feet. 

I  will  add  yet  another  table  (p.  185),  showing 
the  opening  and  closing  words  of  each  canto,  as  I 
think  that  the  reader  may  like  to  run  his  eye  up  and 
down  it.  It  reveals  the  remarkable  fact,  that  not- 
withstanding the  number  of  repeated  verses  in  the 
Iliad,  the  poet  never  begins  or  ends  a  canto  twice  in 
the  same  way.  The  nearest  approximation  is  seen  at 
the  close  of  Cantos  III  and  V,  at  the  close  of  Cantos 
XLII  and  XLIV,  and  at  the  beginning  of  Cantos 
XXVII  and  XXXII ;  but  even  the  first  two  cases 
are  sufficiently  distinct,  and  the  third  is  materially 
different.  The  full  significance  of  the  fact  I  do  not 
myself  quite  clearly  perceive,  unless  it  was  intended 
to  avoid  confusion  in  enumerating  the  verses  which 
compose    the   diflFerent   cantos,    and   so   to  assist  a 


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1 86     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

memorial  artifice ;  or  else  to  furnish  a  short  title 
for  each  canto,  derived  from  its  opening  phrase,  and 
so  to  denominate  the  point  from  which  a  rhapsodist 
might  be  requested  to  begin. 

When  Wolf  in  the  years  1794  and  1795  set  the 
scholars  of  Europe  by  the  ears  about  Homer,  he 
augured  that  it  would  perhaps  be  impossible  to  show, 
even  with  probability,  at  what  places  exactly  the  later 
shreds  and  patches  set  out  from  the  primitive  web. 
The  reader  is  asked  to  judge,  in  reference  to  the 
Iliad,  whether  this  presentiment  was  sound,  or  whether, 
owing  to  a  fortunate  design  on  the  part  of  the  poet 
and  a  fortunate  discovery  by  one  of  his  students,  it 
has  at  length  been  falsified ;  for  our  demonstration 
now  is  at  an  end.  He  will  scrutinise  without  undue 
severity  the  whole  of  our  proceeding,  and  above  all 
will  determine  if  the  figures  have  unfairly  been  mani- 
pulated. I  am  quite  alive  to  the  fact  that  the  hand- 
ling of  figures  is  often  a  delusive  exercise,  and  that 
with  the  loose  and  easy  syntax  of  the  Iliad  one  could 
produce  almost  any  number  that  one  pleases  by 
throwing  out  verses  here  and  there.  But  I  maintain, 
in  the  first  place,  that  our  pauses  are  effective  and 
all  distinctly  marked  ;  next,  that  our  cuts  are  in  mosf 
cases  solid,  simple,  and  clean ;  again,  that  when  iso- 
lated verses  are  removed,  they  are  either  defective  in 
themselves  or  else  deficient  in  manuscript  authority ; 
lastly,  that  the  passages  excised  coincide  to  a  striking 


BKS.  SECOND  &?  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     187 

extent  with  those  already  liable  to  learned  men's  sus- 
picions ;  and  upon  the  whole,  that  nothing  has  been 
done  without  fair  reasons  shown.     Nay,  as  regards 
the  long  genealogies  and  tales  in  Nestor's  speeches,  our 
dealing  is  so  far  from  unprincipled  that  it  brings  to 
light  a  principle  of  quite  a  different  kind,  which  wears 
a  great  appearance  of  truth.     For  we  do  not  pick 
and  choose  these  tales  and  trees  to  suit  our  theory, 
which  would  not  have  a  very  convincing  effect,  but 
uniformly  banish  them  all.     And  if  other  cases  can- 
not be  so  well  reduced  to  rule,  yet  it  is  not  wholly 
strange  that  in  going  down  the  ages  the  great  poem 
has  contracted  some  accretions  of  this  sort,  from  men 
who  perhaps  knew  not  how,  for  want  of  weight, 
their  thoughts  and  their  fancies  could  be  otherwise 
preserved.     Or  if  in  some  cases  our  arguments  seem 
slender,  the  reader  will  look  to  the  force  of  the  whole, 
and  will  reflect  that  the  interpolators  could  not  always 
be  counted  on  to  do  their  work  so  badly  as  to  betray 
itself  clearly  toView.    The  reader  will  be  more  inclined 
to  question  if  there  are  not  other  verses  which  ought 
to  be  expelled ;  for  it  has  not  been  convenient  to  in- 
terrupt our  march,  in  order  to  defend  all  the  verses 
that  anyone  may  ever  have  assailed.     I  can  only  re- 
quest him  to  form  his  own  opinion,  from  the  instances 
in  which  I  thought  it  well  to  turn  aside,  as  to  whether 
it   was   worth   our  while    to  linger    over    lines  less 
plausibly  arraigned.     My  own  opinion  is  that  they 
can  all  be  validly  defended. 


1 88     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   lUAD 

And  now  what  is  the  meaning  of  the  law  of  com- 
position which  regulates  the  poem  from  one  end  to 
the  other  ?  I  have  talked  about  the  poet  above,  be- 
cause the  hypothesis  of  a  single  author,  apart  from  all 
additions  that  offend  against  the  law,  seems  to  me  by 
far  the  most  simple  of  all.  But  there  are  two  others 
which  suggest  themselves  at  once.  First,  that  the 
presence  of  the  law  is  a  result  of  editing,  and  of  a 
desire  by  somebody  felt  to  present  to  the  world  in  a 
systematic  form  the  best  remains  of  epic  poetry.  But 
this  notion  no  sooner  will  be  clearly  entertained  than 
it  will  be  decisively  rejected.  Could  the  poem  mani- 
fest the  splendour  that  it  does,  if  once  it  was  stretched 
on  a  bed  of  Procrustes  ^  Would  it  not  be  cruelly 
truncated  here  and  racked  asunder  there,  and  have 
undergone  most  savage  mutilation  up  and  down,  to 
adapt  it  to  a  numerical  scheme  imposed  from  with- 
out ?  Take  the  canto  which  includes  the  intercourse 
of  Hector  and  Andromache.  Are  there  any  signs  of 
its  having  been  spun  out  at  the  beginning,  or  lopped 
off  short  at  the  close,  or  dilated  or  contracted  in  the 
middle  ?  You  could  hardly  deduct  or  annex  a  single 
line  without  thus  impairing  the  perfection  of  the  rest. 
Or  take  again  the  Slaying  of  Hector,  and  the  Funeral 
Games  of  Patroclus,  and  the  Exodus  of  Priam,  the 
first  and  last  of  which  appeal  to  every  man  by  their 
immortal  merit,  and  about  the  second  of  which  it  was 
said  by  Schiller,  that  no  man  who  had  read  it  had 
lived  in  vain.     It  is  here,  in  these  passages  owned  to 


BKS.  SECOND  ^  FIRST  :  CONCLUSION     189 

be  sound,  that  our  rule  is  applied  with  the  greatest 
facility.  And  in  general,  if  you  peruse  the  Iliad  as 
presented  in  our  scheme,  you  will  find  it  difficult  to 
point  out  a  single  passage  which  is  simply  a  bridge 
between  two  of  the  others.  It  is  rather  the  poem  as 
it  usually  stands  which  offers  us  specimens  of  these ; 
and  these  reveal  the  sure  results  of  editing.  Nor  is 
it  at  all  likely  that  such  editing  would  happen  at  a 
date  long  before  the  numerous  accretions  which  now 
neglect  its  principle.  The  several  parts  must  there- 
fore have  been  framed  first  of  all  in  the  shape  pre- 
sented by  the  scheme,  and  not  afterwards  reduced  to 
mechanical  conformity  with  a  rigid  external  law. 

A  second  supposition  may  perhaps  seem  more 
plausible.  There  may  have  been  more  authors  than 
one,  and  the  presence  of  the  law  will  then  be  ex- 
plained by  its  being  a  thing  understood,  that  all 
additions  to  the  poem  must  contain  300  lines,  and 
not  a  verse  under  or  above;  a  convention  which 
was  afterwards  ignored  or  forgotten.  And  we  might 
try  to  date  the  disappearance  of  the  rule  to  a  time 
when  the  early  inhabitants  of  Greece  fled  overseas  to 
Asia  Minor,  in  consequence  of  some  convulsion  at 
home,  carrying  the  poem  along  with  them ;  for 
certain  it  is  that  the  law  was  at  some  time  or  other 
forgotten  or  ignored.  But  this  account  will  apply 
just  as  well  to  the  work  of  a  single  author ;  and  the 
supposition  itself  creates  serious  difficulty.  For  even 
if  an  author  of  surpassing  power  laid  down  the  plan, 


I90     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

It  requires  great  faith  to  believe  that  any  of  his 
followers  would  ever  have  respected  it.  What  he 
found  so  suited  to  his  genius  might  hamper  theirs ; 
and  if  they  could  not  insert  a  canto  without  making 
it  consist  of  exactly  300  lines,  we  might  expect  to 
find  much  greater  weakness  in  certain  tracts  of  the 
poem  than  fairly  lies  to  its  charge.  And  the  Doloneia, 
which  most  modern  critics  reject,  teaches  us  the  truth 
upon  this  subject.  For  here  is  a  distinct  composition 
ascribed  to  another  hand,  though  its  language  reveals 
no  great  difference  of  age  ;  and  here  the  law  does  not 
apply.  Besides,  what  sort  of  authority  was  there  in 
those  remote  times  to  enforce  their  respect  for  a  rule 
like  this  ?  There  was  then  no  republic  of  letters  that 
we  know  of,  as  now  there  exists,  to  protest  against 
the  violation  of  a  law  of  composition,  and  one  which 
only  few  had  an  interest  to  observe.  For  what  can 
it  have  mattered  to  an  audience  whether  a  canto  con- 
tained 300  lines  or  301  ?  So  that  it  all  looks  as  if 
the  source  of  the  rule  were  a  single  man,  and  he  the 
author  of  the  poem,  and  as  if  he  made  it  to  guard 
against  others  meddling  with  his  work,  without  trust- 
ing to  the  casual  force  of  outside  authority.  And 
deeply  thankful  must  we  feel  that  those  who  meddled 
with  it  had  the  forbearance  to  keep  in  all  his  lines, 
instead  of  cutting  them  out  to  make  room  for  their 
own. 

But   apart   from   all   this,    there    is   not    only    a 
particular    observance   of   the    law,   but   a   general 


BKS.  SECOND  &>  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     191 

design  expressible  in  equal  numbers  throughout 
the  poem.  For  the  first  third  and  the  second 
third  and  the  last  third  of  the  total  number  of 
cantos  correspond  with  three  broad  divisions  of 
the  story;  and  if  several  heads  were  at  work  on 
it  at  different  times,  it  would  be  strange  that 
they  hit  on  this  happy  result.  It  would  be  strange 
that  they  left  Idomeneus  in  the  central  canto  of 
the  poem.  It  would  be  strange  that  the  two 
opening  cantos,  those  of  the  Plague  and  the  Quarrel, 
when  united  equate  with  the  two  closing  ones,  of 
the  Exodus  of  Priam  and  the  Ransom  of  Hector; 
and  that  the  next  three,  of  the  Arming  of  the 
Host,  set  oiF  the  penultimate  three  of  the  Games 
of  Patroclus;  and  the  next  six,  of  which  two 
are  preliminary  to  the  Prowess  of  Diomede  in 
the  other  four,  subtend  the  opposite  six,  of  which 
two  are  preliminary  to  the  Career  of  Achilles  in 
the  other  four.  And  here  it  is  not  wholly  true 
to  say,  as  said  by  Dr.  Leaf,  that  the  exploits  of 
Diomede  throw  those  of  Achilles  into  the  shade, 
which  is  one  of  his  arguments  for  breaking  up 
the  poem ;  but  they  balance  one  another  at  opposite 
places  in  the  poem,  only  that  Achilles  seems  by 
far  the  most  tremendous  of  the  two.  But  to  go 
on,  it  would  be  strange  that  the  peaceful  scene 
between  Hector  and  Andromache  should  come  in 
a  canto  corresponding  with  the  peaceful  scene  of 
the  Forging  of  the  Armour ;    and  the  two  cantos 


192     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

of  the  Embassy,  in  which  Achilles  is  headstrong, 
correspond  with  the  two  of  the  Acts  of  Patroclus, 
in  which  he  is  punished ;  and  the  fighting  which 
brings  the  Trojans  to  the  Wall  come  in  the  Rvq 
cantos  before  the  middle  one,  while  the  fighting 
in  the  five  after  it  brings  the  Trojans  at  last  to 
the  Ships.  All  this  articulation  and  proportion 
and  correspondence,  which  the  reader  may  pursue 
for  himself  to  further  lengths,  our  theory  for  the 
first  time  makes  plain ;  and  it  supports  the  hypo- 
thesis of  a  single  author,  and  itself  from  it  receives 
support. 

And  now  what  are  the  difficulties  upon  the 
other  side  ?  I  really  believe  that  if  our  scheme 
is  adopted,  there  is  not  a  true  inconsistency  left, 
except  the  one  about  Pylaemenes  noted  above. 
But  let  us  be  clear  about  the  terms.  The  word 
contradiction  is  sometimes  employed,  by  those  who 
have  a  mind  to  dismember  the  poem,  where  it 
does  not  truly  apply.  I  choose  an  instance,  only 
because  it  happens  to  serve  my  turn,  from  Dr.  Leaf. 
Speaking  of  some  ancient  critics,  who  transposed 
the  colloquy  of  Glaucus  and  Diomede  to  a  different 
place,  he  says,  "Unfortunately  we  are  not  told 
who  these  critics  were,  nor  to  what  place  or  on 
what  grounds  they  transposed  the  colloquy.  It 
is  highly  probable  that  we  have  merely  the  record 
of  an  opinion  that  it  ought  to  come  before  the 
words  of  Athene  in  E  124-32,  and  the  subsequent 


BKS.  SECOND  ^  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     193 

victories  of  Diomedes  over  the  gods;  for  with 
those  words  and  acts  the  words  of  Diomedes  in  Z 
123-43  are  in  crying  contradiction — a  contradiction 
perhaps  the  most  patent  in  the  Iliad^  and  one 
which  can  in  no  way  be  palliated."  The  words 
of  Diomede  are  those  in  which  he  asks  Glaucus 
whether  he  is  a  mortal  or  an  immortal,  and  says 
that  he  would  not  fight  with  the  heavenly  gods. 
The  reader  will  find  a  rough  translation  above, 
where  we  treated  of  Canto  XI.  Now  the  case 
stands  thus.  Athene  clarifies  the  vision  of  Diomede, 
so  that  he  may  know  a  god  from  a  man,  if  he 
should  meet  him  in  the  fray.  She  then  leaves 
him  with  a  warning  not  to  fight  against  the  other 
gods,  but  if  Aphrodite  should  enter  the  war,  he 
is  to  wound  her  with  his  sharp  bronze.  Diomede 
encounters  and  nearly  kills  Aeneas;  and  sure 
enough  arrives  Aphrodite,  throws  her  arms  and 
mantle  round  her  son,  and  tries  to  carry  him  off. 
Diomede  catches  her  up  and  wounds  her  on  the 
wrist ;  whereupon  she  drops  her  son,  who  is  saved 
by  Apollo,  and  drives  away  to  Olympus.  Diomede, 
in  the  fury  of  the  moment,  forgets  Athene's  advice 
and  rushes  at  Aeneas  in  the  keeping  of  Apollo. 
Thrice  he  rushes  on,  and  thrice  Apollo  makes  him 
reel ;  but  the  fourth  time  Apollo  sternly  repri- 
mands him,  and  Diomede  retires  in  awe.  After 
a  while  Ares  rallies  the  Trojans,  and  Hera  and 
Athene  resolve   to   settle  Ares.     Athene   darts   to 

N 


194     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

Diomede,  and  reproaches  him  for  withdrawing 
before  the  Trojans.  He  excuses  himself  on  the 
ground  of  fulfilling  her  own  command  by  retreating 
before  Ares,  who  directs  the  Trojans ;  for  in  fact 
he  had  retreated  the  moment  he  perceived  him  at 
V  596.  Athene  now  bids  him  fear  neither  Ares 
nor  any  other  god,  inasmuch  as  she  is  there  to 
help  him,  but  to  drive  against  him  and  to  hit  him. 
She  then  mounts  the  chariot,  puts  on  a  cap  of 
invisibility,  and  when  Ares  reaches  out  across  the 
horses  with  his  spear,  she  catches  hold  of  it  and 
shoves  from  below ;  whereupon  Diomede  wounds 
Ares,  Athene  driving  home  the  spear;  and  Ares 
departs  away  to  Olympus,  Athene  and  Hera  follow- 
ing shortly  after.  A  good  deal  later  on  comes 
the  colloquy  of  Glaucus  and  Diomede,  in  which 
the  alleged  contradiction  occurs,  and  it  seems  to 
have  two  parts ;  first,  that  Diomede  should  doubt 
whether  Glaucus  is  a  god  or  a  man,  when  his 
vision  has  been  purged  by  Athene ;  and  secondly, 
that  he  should  express  a  reluctance  to  fight  with 
the  heavenly  gods,  when  he  has  been  fighting  with 
Aphrodite  and  Apollo  and  Ares.  But  can  it  in 
no  way  be  palliated  ?  Take  the  last  part  first. 
Diomede,  by  special  exception  of  Athene,  wounds 
Aphrodite.  He  forgets  himself  for  a  moment 
and  rushes  at  Apollo,  but  soon  receives  a  lesson, 
and  never  forgets  it  again.  It  requires  a  distinct 
command  and  assurance  of  present  aid  from  Athene 


BKS.  SECOND  ^  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     195 

to  make  him  uplift  a  finger  against  Ares;  and 
when  she  leaves  his  side,  he  is  back  where  he 
was  before,  reluctant  as  ever;  and  so  he  says  to 
Glaucus.  Now  take  the  first  part.  It  is  not 
stated  how  long  the  miraculous  purging  of  Dio- 
mede's  vision  is  supposed  to  last ;  and  hence  it 
can  always  be  argued  that  his  question  put  to 
Glaucus  is  the  poet's  way  of  intimating  that  the 
scales  are  on  his  eyes  once  again.  But  let  them 
remain  no  less  lucid  than  before.  Is  it  an  un- 
natural thing  that  a  man,  in  the  height  of  his 
surprise,  should  doubt  the  evidence  of  his  senses  ? 
For  it  is  the  astonishment  of  Diomede  at  the 
gallantry  of  Glaucus,  who  advances  so  far  in  front 
of  the  rest  to  meet  him  in  his  victorious  career, 
that  prompts  him  to  inquire  if  he  is  a  god  or  only 
a  man.  And  it  magnifies  greatly  our  notion  of 
Glaucus,  and  prepares  us  for  his  noble  utterance 
which  follows;  and  such  I  believe  to  have  been 
the  exact  intention  of  the  poet.  I  do  not  call 
this  a  contradiction  or  anything  like  it ;  and  cases 
of  this  sort  I  set  on  one  side. 

Now  let  us  try  our  hand  on  another  case,  the 
notorious  one  of  the  words  of  Achilles  to  Patroclus 
in  Book  XI  609-610  and  Book  XVI  52-86,  which 
are  often  thought  to  reveal  a  total  ignorance  of  the 
Embassy  in  Book  IX.  And  here  I  am  certain  to 
arouse  the  reader's  mistrust;  for  there  is  a  weight 
of  sane  and  sober  authority  in  favour  of  excluding 


196     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

Book  IX  from  the  original  plan  of  the  poem  because 
of  those  words.  Grote  states  the  case  against  it 
with  an  apparent  force  which  is  quite  lacking  in  his 
exclusion  of  Books  II-VII.  The  latter  he  excludes, 
not  to  dwell  on  his  objections  indirectly  met  by  our 
excisions  in  Book  II  and  in  Book  VII,  chiefly  on  the 
ground  that  the  design  of  Zeus  does  not  begin  to 
take  effect  until  Book  VIII.  Even  if  it  were  so, 
there  is  nothing  very  singular  in  Zeus  not  beginning 
to  act  till  the  third  day  after  his  promise  to  Thetis, 
unless  we  reckon  length  of  time  by  books  instead  of 
days.  But  the  design  of  Zeus  begins  to  operate 
with  the  opening  of  Book  II,  when  he  sends  the 
dream  to  Agamemnon  and  Iris  to  the  Trojans,  in 
order  to  bring  the  armies  face  to  face,  after  three 
weeks  and  more  of  inactivity ;  and  its  development 
is  gradual,  the  Greeks  not  being  defeated  on  the 
first  day  of  all,  and  the  gods  being  allowed  to  mix 
in  the  battle;  which  helps  to  acquaint  us  with  the 
usual  mode  of  warfare  and  the  sympathies  of  the 
heavenly  patrons.  Then  comes  the  day  of  truce 
and  cremation  of  the  dead.  And  now  the  second 
step  is  taken  by  Zeus,  when  he  forbids  the  gods  to 
interfere,  and  himself  dismays  the  Greeks  ;  a  decisive 
step,  preparatory  to  which  was  his  trial  of  the 
temper  of  Olympus  at  the  opening  of  Book  IV,  of 
which  Grote  so  groundlessly  complains.  Then 
comes  the  Embassy  to  Achilles.  And  last  of  all  is 
taken  the  third  step  of  Zeus,  with  the  third  day  of 


BKS.  SECOND  tf  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     197 

battle,  when  he  glorifies  Hector  in  the  height,  before 
his  death,  and  brings  the  Trojans  down  upon  the 
ships.  If  we  quarrel  with  this  gradual  development 
at  all,  we  ought  to  place  the  continuation  of  Book  I 
much  later  than  Book  VIII,  and  indeed  inquire  why 
Zeus  did  not  reach  his  end  at  once,  with  a  thunder- 
bolt or  two  among  the  ships ;  but  of  course  there  is 
nothing  offensive  about  it.  Nor  is  Achilles  lost 
sight  of  in  these  books;  for  in  all  of  them  except 
Book  III,  which  does  not  well  admit  of  it,  he  is 
kept  before  our  minds  by  reference  and  mention. 
But  to  return  to  Book  IX,  so  calm  a  critic  as  Sir 
Richard  Jebb  declares  that  it  cannot  have  been 
known  to  the  composer  of  Book  XVI  52-87,  and 
that  it  certainly  did  not  belong  to  the  original  form 
of  the  poem.  This  looks  bad  for  Book  the  Ninth. 
But  I  beseech  the  reader  to  review  the  question 
afresh,  following  the  only  safe  way  in  such  cases, 
first  to  examine  with  the  utmost  care  the  actual 
words  of  the  poet,  and  then  to  reconstruct  in  his 
own  mind,  with  the  utmost  distinctness  of  which  it 
is  capable,  the  entire  situation  that  they  paint,  and 
especially  what  is  passing  in  the  mind  of  Achilles. 
If  he  comes  across  anything  that  he  cannot  reconcile 
with  the  rest,  in  accordance  with  the  common  rules 
of  sequence  and  coherence,  there  is  some  incon- 
sistency ;  and  if  there  is  nothing,  there  is  not. 

Now  what  is  the  precise  ground  of  the  grievance 
felt  by  Achilles,  as  it  appears  from  his  first  words  to 


198     COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

Thetis  down  to  what  are  almost  his  last  to  Patroclus  ? 
Apart  from  his  affection  for  Briseis  herself,  and  his 
sense  of  Agamemnon's  ingratitude,  it  is  because  the 
prize  awarded  him  by  all  the  Greeks  has  been  taken 
away  by  Agamemnon  alone.  He  is  the  victim  of 
an  outrageous  act  of  encroachment  by  the  king 
upon  the  rights  of  one  of  his  freemen  and  one  of 
his  peers.  This  is  the  point  of  the  repeated  avrog, 
which  signifies  that  Agamemnon  is  acting  without 
sufficient  authority;  first  in  I  137,  e-yw  Se  kcv  avrog 
eXcoiuLai,  where  he  threatens  to  do  the  thing  in 
defiance  of  the  general  decision  ;  next  in  I  161,  avros 
acpaiprjcrea-Oai  aireiKeig^  where  Achilles  replies  to  the 
threat;  again  in  I  185,  avrog  Icov  KXia-lrjpSe,  where 
the  threat  comes  nearer  home,  and  would  have  cost 
the  king  his  life,  had  not  Athene  intervened ;  and 
lastly  in  I  356,  eXwv  yap  e)(€i  yepag,  avrog  airovpag, 
where  Achilles  complains  of  his  action  to  Thetis; 
the  sentence  being  repeated  by  Thetis  to  Zeus  in 
I  507,  by  Thersites  in  II  240,  and  by  Nestor  in 
IX  III,  except  that  here  avros  is  replaced  by  ov  n 
KaO'  ^fierepov  ye  voov.  There  is  a  sharp  distinction 
throughout  between  the  sovereign  body  of  freemen, 
ufe?  ^A-)(aiwv,  and  the  chief  magistrate,  Agamemnon, 
alike  in  I  135,  162,  240,  276,  392,  409;  in  XVI 
56  ;  and  in  XVIII  444.  And  even  the  advisory 
council  of  elders  disapproves  of  what  the  king  has 
done,  as  appears  from  Nestor's  phrase  cited  above. 
And   who  are   the   natural    protectors  of  Achilles 


BKS.  SECOND  &  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     199 

against  this  act  of  tyranny?  They  are  that  same 
body  of  freemen,  vleg  ^A-xaiwvy  who  made  the  original 
award.  But  they  fail  him  altogether,  afraid  to 
provoke  the  resentment  of  the  powerful  and  vindic- 
tive Agamemnon.  Nestor  puts  in  a  few  words 
of  advice  at  I  275-284,  urging  Agamemnon  to 
forbear  from  his  design,  and  Achilles  to  show  more 
respect  to  the  king.  But  the  bitter  words  of 
Achilles  at  I  293-299  evince  that  he  considers  his 
cause  to  be  lost,  so  far  as  popular  support  is  con- 
cerned. And  indeed  he  had  called  them  men  of  no 
worth  at  I  231,  and  vowed  at  I  240  that  the  whole 
body  of  the  Greeks  would  rue  their  tame  submission 
to  the  king,  when  they  felt  the  weight  of  Hector's 
hand  without  his  own  to  shield  them.  He  accepts 
the  verdict,  will  not  fight  about  a  girl,  but  is  resolved 
upon  abstaining  from  the  war.  Agamemnon,  en- 
couraged by  the  ceasing  of  the  plague,  persists  in 
fulfilling  his  threat.  The  temper  of  the  assembly 
in  Book  II  shows  only  too  clearly  how  unpopular  his 
action  is.  But  Achilles  remains  publicly  affronted, 
publicly  subjected  to  injury,  and  publicly  left  in 
the  lurch.  He  is  treated  like  a  settler  without  any 
rights,  aTijULr]Tov  jULerai/darrriv^  as  he  complains  both  at 
IX  648  and  at  XVI  59.  In  these  circumstances 
he  appeals  to  heaven  to  hasten  his  countrymen's 
defeat. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  Embassy  in  Book  IX. 
Agamemnon  is  in  despair  owing  to  his  own  blind 


200     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

folly  in  alienating  Achilles.  But  rather  than  openly 
avow  it  and  publicly  stoop  before  Achilles,  he  pro- 
poses in  assembly  that  they  should  all  go  home 
to  Greece ;  which  draws  down  on  him  a  smart 
reproof  from  Diomede  in  return  for  the  rebuke 
which  he  administered  to  Diomede  in  the  Fourth 
Book.  Nestor,  perceiving  the  true  solution,  but  too 
anxious  to  save  the  great  king's  dignity,  gets  the 
assembly  out  of  the  way  by  hinting  at  supper  and 
the  posting  of  sentinels,  and  advises  Agamemnon 
to  hold  a  privy  council  in  his  tent,  without  saying 
for  what.  In  this  seclusion  he  presses  the  appease- 
ment of  Achilles  on  the  king,  who  readily  com- 
plies, only  too  glad  to  get  so  quietly  out  of  his 
scrape.  He  offers  to  restore  Briseis,  offers  one  of 
his  daughters  in  marriage  to  Achilles,  and  offers 
splendid  gifts  besides.  Nothing  could  appear  more 
handsome  and  liberal  than  this  offer;  but  it  has 
two  radical  defects.  First,  it  is  merely  an  offer, 
a  bargain,  not  a  restitution ;  and  in  the  next  place, 
it  is  a  clandestine  negotiation,  hatched  in  the  re- 
tirement of  Agamemnon's  tent,  and  designed  to 
spare  that  haughty  ruler's  feelings.  The  envoys 
are  the  private  envoys  of  the  monarch,  and  not 
the  public  spokesmen  of  the  Greeks ;  and  they 
discharge  their  commission  under  cover  of  the  dark. 
Indeed  they  are  never  called  by  the  pompous  name 
of  Ambassadors,  nor  their  commission  an  Embassy, 
at  all ;  and  I  suspect  that  the  accident  of  an  ancient 


BKS.  SECOND  £sf  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     201 

title  to  the  book  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  whole 
mistake.  The  proper  way  was  to  propose  in  full 
assembly  the  instant  restoration  of  Briseis,  and  then 
begin  to  bargain  with  Achilles  for  his  aid ;  and,  if 
Agamemnon  refused  to  be  reasonable,  to  put  com- 
pulsion upon  him,  as  Thersites  suggested  at  the 
outset,  by  declining  to  serve  him  any  more.  This 
is  what  Achilles  is  waiting  for,  as  the  result  of  his 
appeal  to  heaven.  Then  Agamemnon  would  have 
undergone  the  same  humiliation  as  himself;  then 
he  would  have  got  back  Briseis  from  the  Greeks, 
whom  he  had  inculpated  in  the  wrong  of  her 
removal;  and  then  he  would  have  got  the  gifts 
as  a  public  compensation  for  the  damage  to  his 
credit  in  putting  up  with  the  disgrace.  But  is  it 
likely  that  he  would  submit  to  this  secret  healing 
of  the  quarrel,  only  to  have  Thersites  and  the 
rest  making  fun  of  him  next  day,  and  saying 
that  Agamemnon  had  got  the  better  of  him  twice  ? 
For  the  opening  sentence  of  Odysseus,  who  seems 
to  mismanage  the  furtive  affair,  betrays  the  fact 
that  he  comes  from  a  council  in  the  monarch's 
tent;  and  Achilles  has  a  notion  what  that  means. 
There  is  no  suggestion  of  a  public  assembly  in 
which  to  make  a  public  reparation ;  the  envoys 
arrive  at  a  suspicious  hour;  and  Odysseus  lays 
much  more  stress  on  the  fact  that  the  offer  is  a 
bargain,  only  to  hold  good  if  Achilles  consents  to 
fight,   than  ever   Agamemnon  did  himself.     What 


202     COMPOSITION   OF   THE   ILIAD 

wonder  that  Achilles  opens  his  speech  with  words 
that  denounce  this  underhand  intrigue?  That  he 
expresses  his  abhorrence  of  dishonest  lying  talk? 
That  he  says  the  king  is  not  likely  to  persuade 
either  himself  or  any  other  Greek  to  fight,  when 
loyal  and  unselfish  service  is  rewarded  in  such  a 
way  as  this  ?  That  he  dwells  on  the  marked  affront 
of  taking  back  his  prize  of  war  alone,  and  on 
Agamemnon's  trickery  in  dealing  with  him  so  ? 
That  he  utterly  distrusts  the  intentions  of  the  king, 
whose  ways  he  knows  only  too  well?  That  he 
bids  him  contrive  with  Odysseus  himself,  and  with 
the  other  scheming  kings,  how  best  to  keep  the 
fire  off  the  ships  ?  That,  as  if  in  despair  of  reason- 
able treatment,  he  talks  of  going  home  on  the 
morrow?  That  he  pointedly  directs  Odysseus  to 
report  his  answer  a/ncpaSov,  openly  in  public,  that 
the  scowling  looks  of  the  Greeks  may  be  a  warning, 
if  ever  the  king  should  be  minded  to  practise  the 
like  shameless  trick  upon  another,  the  king  who 
has  not  dared  to  look  him  openly  in  the  face  ? 
That  he  utterly  rejects  the  gifts,  and  would  not 
accept  them  were  they  ten  or  twenty  times  as 
great  ?  That  he  says  Agamemnon  will  never  bend 
his  will  until  he  makes  a  full  and  perfect  satis- 
faction for  the  disgrace  which  is  eating  into  his 
soul?  And  that,  with  a  final  sarcasm,  he  bids  the 
envoys  go  and  tell  it  all  to  the  plotting  chiefs 
and  elders,  who   have   failed    in   their   attempt   to 


BKS.  SECOND  &  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     203 

cheat  him  of  his  wrath  by  this  stealthy  reparation  ? 
"  What  more  does  Achilles  want  ? "  somebody  has 
asked.  He  wants  what  any  man  of  sense  and 
spirit  would  want  in  such  a  case ;  a  sincere  ac- 
knowledgment of  his  rights,  as  ample  and  as  open 
as  their  invasion  was  public  and  palpable,  that  he 
may  have  some  security  against  another  repetition 
of  the  outrage.  It  is  principle,  not  pique,  that 
animates  Achilles. 

Well,  now  we  come  to  his  words  addressed  to 
Patroclus  in  XI  609-610.  "Patroclus,"  he  says, 
"now  I  think  that  the  Greeks  (^Axaiovg)  will 
stick  about  my  knees  in  supplication ;  for  they 
are  reduced  to  desperate  straits."  Absolutely  right, 
and  not  to  be  bettered.  It  is  the  Greeks,  the 
public,  the  sovereign  body  of  freemen,  who  have 
never  heard  of  or  known  or  had  anything  to  do 
with  the  secret  deputation,  who  are  now  to  repent 
of  their  supine  neglect  of  his  rights,  who  are  now 
to  make  a  formal  acknowledgment  of  his  wrongs, 
and  by  that  very  act  publicly  humiliate  the  king. 
The  distinction  is  surely  not  difficult  to  seize,  when 
the  poet  has  so  carefully  described  the  mystery 
with  which  the  former  overtures  were  conducted. 
It  is  all  a  question  whether  Agamemnon  is  to 
suffer  the  same  mental  torment  that  he  has  in- 
flicted on  Achilles,  or  is  to  get  off  by  some  other 
means,  with  his  feelings  and  his  dignity  unscarred. 
If  we  read  Grote's  attack  on  the  Ninth  Book  with 


204     COMPOSITION   OF  THE  ILIAD 

this  distinction  in  our  mind,  it  is  almost  ludicrous 
to  observe  how  every  one  of  his  arguments  turns 
upon  ignoring  it.  One  would  almost  imagine  that 
he  had  seen  the  distinction  and  was  determined  to 
obliterate  it,  so  persistently  does  he  go  on  about 
"  the  outpouring  of  profound  humiliation  by  the 
Greeks,"  "the  supplication  of  the  Greeks,"  "the 
honours  of  the  Greeks,"  "the  richest  atoning  presents, 
tendered  from  the  Greeks,"  all  of  which  he  falsely 
supposes  to  have  been  made  or  offered  to  Achilles, 
when  not  a  Greek  but  Agamemnon  and  the  elders 
secluded  in  his  tent  has  had  a  hand  in  the  matter. 
Nay,  the  very  verses  to  which  he  directs  our  attention 
should  have  opened  his  eyes ;  IX  603,  where  there 
is  a  very  clear  distinction  between  the  ^A-^^aiol  and 
those  who  have  offered  the  gifts ;  and  XVIII  448, 
where  there  is  another  between  the  'A^afo/  and 
the  yipovreg  ^Apyeiwv,  who  have  made  the  suppli- 
cation. Surely,  if  the  poet  had  meant  that  the 
gifts  were  offered  on  behalf  of  the  Greeks,  he 
could  hardly  have  avoided  dropping  a  word  to 
apprise  us  of  his  meaning ;  whereas  the  distinction 
throughout  is  steadily  maintained. 

Turn  again  to  the  words  of  Achilles  in  Book  XVI 
52-86.  The  same  grievance  is  stated,  that  Aga- 
memnon has  by  an  arbitrary  act  defrauded  his  peer, 
and  dishonoured  his  best  warrior  like  an  unfree 
alien ;  a  grievance  still  unredressed,  as  was  before 
implied  by  the  words  of  Poseidon  in  XIII  111-113. 


BKS.  SECOND  &  FIRST  :  CONCLUSION     205 

"  If  he  would  but  be  kind  to  me  in  his  conscience," 
says  Achilles,  who  is  evidently  longing  to  be  in  the 
field  again,  "  the  Trojans  soon  would  fly ;  but  now 
they  are  fighting  around  the  camp."  He  still  awaits 
some  proof  of  Agamemnon's  sincerity.  Meanwhile 
he  sends  forth  Patroclus,  so  as  just  to  save  the  ships, 
instructing  him  how  to  act,  "  that  you  may  procure 
great  price  and  credit  for  me  from  all  the  Greeks, 
and  that  they  may  remove  the  lovely  damsel  back, 
and  furnish  glorious  gifts  besides."  It  is  to  be  a 
complete  public  restitution,  with  adequate  damages, 
as  the  injury  was  public  and  the  insult  touched  his 
fame  ;  and  nothing  at  all  like  the  dark  negotiation  got 
up  to  spare  Agamemnon's  pride. 

The  death  of  Patroclus  forces  Achilles'  hand. 
In  Book  XIX,  regardless  of  all  else  but  the  memory 
of  his  friend,  he  summons  the  assembly,  and  re- 
nounces his  wrath,  and  declares  his  intention  of 
fighting.  Long  and  loud  is  the  applause ;  and  con- 
siderable is  the  confusion  of  Agamemnon.  The  gifts 
are  publicly  exposed ;  Briseis  is  publicly  restored ; 
and  a  public  oath  is  taken,  no  doubt  to  confute 
Thersites  and  his  like,  that  Achilles  is  no  sufferer  by 
her  temporary  absence.  His  formal  reinstatement  in 
his  rights  is  complete,  and  all  is  happily  over.  Not 
a  single  contradiction  occurs  in  the  whole  of  it. 

I  choose  a  final  instance  of  alleged  inconsistency, 
not  because  it  is  a  serious  one  in  itself,  but  because 
it  raises  a  question  not  without  interest  to  readers 


2o6     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

who  would  distinctly  grasp  another  conception  of 
the  poet.  In  Book  XIII  674-684,  when  the  Trojans 
have  carried  the  Wall,  but  Idomeneus  has  re-entered 
the  battle,  it  is  said  that  Hector  did  not  know  that 
his  host  was  being  slaughtered  on  the  left  of  the 
ships,  but  held  on  where  at  first  he  sprang  within 
the  gate  and  the  Wall,  where  the  ships  of  Ajax  and 
Protesilaus  were,  and  the  Wall  was  lowest  built,  and 
where  the  horses  and  men  were  especially  free  to  act. 
Now  Idomeneus,  to  whom  this  slaughter  is  due, 
entered  the  battle  on  the  Greek  left,  as  appears 
from  his  words  in  312-327,  where  he  tells  us  also 
that  the  Ajaxes  and  Teucer  are  defending  the  ships 
in  the  middle.  Thus  it  would  seem  as  if  in  the 
previous  passage  the  poet  also  meant  the  Greek  left, 
and  therefore  Hector's  right ;  from  which  it  would 
follow  that  Hector  is  somewhere  about  the  centre. 
But  we  are  further  told  in  that  passage  that  Hector 
was  near  the  ships  of  Ajax,  and  yet  we  know  from 
Book  XI  5-9  that  the  ships  of  Ajax  are  at  one  end  of 
the  camp,  and  that  the  ships  of  Achilles  are  at  the 
other,  while  the  ship  of  Odysseus  is  in  the  middle. 
Then  how  can  Hector  both  be  in  the  centre  and  be 
near  the  ships  of  Ajax  ?  This  difficulty  compelled 
Aristarchus  to  suppose  that  the  other  Ajax,  son 
of  Oileus,  was  meant.  But  we  cannot  accept  his 
view ;  for  Ajax,  son  of  Telamon,  is  always  meant 
unless  the  other  is  specified,  and  in  XV  705-746  he 
is  near  about  the  ship  of  Protesilaus.     Hence  Dr. 


BKS.  SECOND  &>  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     207 

Leaf  says  on  673,  "  Hector,  it  appears,  is  in  the 
centre  of  the  battle'*;  and  again  on  681,  after 
referring  us  to  XI  5-9,  "  But  we  need  not  trouble 
ourselves  about  the  discrepancy  with  so  late  a  passage 
as  the  introduction  to  A  "  ;  a  passage  which  I  hold 
to  be  no  later  than  the  rest.  How,  then,  are  we  to 
reconcile  this  seeming  discrepancy  ? 

First,  I  lay  down  that  the  poet  does  not  use  the 
terms  right  and  left  from  one  point  of  view,  but 
varies  it  when  he  is  speaking  of  a  Trojan  or  a  Greek. 
Thus  in  XI  498  he  says  that  Hector  was  fighting 
toward  the  left  of  the  whole  battle,  by  which  he 
clearly  means  the  Trojan  left,  because  he  adds,  "  by 
the  banks  of  the  river  Scamander,"  which  in  the 
poet's  view  flows  along  the  west  of  the  plain,  and 
the  Trojans  face  to  the  north.  So,  too,  concerning 
Ares,  who  befriends  the  Trojans,  it  is  said  at  V  355 
that  Aphrodite,  who  is  also  their  friend,  found  him 
sitting  on  the  left  of  the  battle ;  which  is  the  Trojan 
left,  because  he  was  set  down  by  Athene  on  the 
bank  of  Scamander  at  verse  36  of  the  same  book. 
Then  again,  when  Idomeneus  re-enters  the  battle, 
it  must  be  the  Greek  left,  for  Idomeneus  is  speaking 
and  says  to  Meriones  at  XIII  326,  pcol'v  S'  cS^'  iir' 
apioTTep  €)(€  a-T parody  "  hold  On  here  toward  the  left 
of  the  host  TO  us."  And  at  XIII  675  in  the  other 
passage  it  must  be  Hector's  left  again,  because  he 
puts  in  the  pronoun  ol  before  vriwv  eir*  apicrrepd^ 
"toward    the   left   to    him,"   that   is,    to   Hector. 


2o8     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

Now  the  question  is  how  Hector's  left  and  the 
Greek  left  alike  mark  out  the  place  where  Idomeneus 
has  been  slaying.  It  is  clear  that  Hector  cannot  be 
in  the  centre,  but  must  be  on  the  Trojan  right, 
beyond  the  region  where  the  Cretan  hero  does  his 
execution.  And  this  is  borne  out  by  what  is  said  of 
his  being  near  the  ships  of  Ajax  at  one  extremity  of 
the  line ;  nor  is  it  very  probable  that  the  Wall  would 
be  built  the  lowest  in  the  middle,  yet  it  is  said  to  be 
lowest  where  Hector  and  the  ships  of  Ajax  are. 
But  then  it  seems  strange  that  Hector  and  Idomeneus 
being  so  near  at  hand,  one  should  not  know  what 
the  other  is  doing.  This  I  take  to  depend  on  the 
configuration  of  the  Wall.  I  do  not  know  how  my 
reader  usually  conceives  of  the  Wall,  whether  as  one 
straight  line  or  how.  But,  for  myself,  I  find  it  easiest 
to  think  of  it  as  a  rectangular  or  at  least  a  curvilinear 
structure.  This  seems  to  agree  with  what  is  said  at 
XIV  35,  that  the  ships  were  drawn  up  in  rows  on 
the  beach,  and  at  XII  5,  that  the  Wall  was  built  for 
their  defence,  and  the  trench  driven  round  about ; 
for  it  is  only  natural  that  the  Greeks  should  cover 
up  their  flanks  as  well  as  their  front.  Let  us  sup- 
pose it,  then,  to  present  three  sides  of  a  rectangle, 
parallel  with  the  trench,  as  shown  in  the  following 
plan;  and  let  us  place  over  against  it,  from  our 
right  to  left,  the  5  Trojan  companies  under  3  leaders 
each,  in  the  exact  order  described  by  the  poet  at  XII 
88-104,  where  he  narrates  the  method  of  attack. 


BKS.  SECOND  ^sf  FIRST  :  CONCLUSION     209 

I  have  put  the  groups  in  the  order  described, 
but  not  the  names  in  each  group;  for  it  seems 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  chief  leaders,  such 
as  Hector  or  Sarpedon,  are  supported  on  either 
hand  by  the  other  two.  So  Aeneas  would  have 
Archelochus  on  one  side  and  Acamas  on  the  other ; 
and  so  again  with  Paris.  I  have  put  in  a  gate  on 
our  right  front,  as  well  as  one  on  the  left  flank, 
but  only  for  the  sake  of  its  symmetry;  for  the 
poet  makes  mention  of  no  more  than  two.     The 


Attberopaeus 

SARPEDON 

Gliauejus 

S           Ships                             Ship                              Ships 
— m            of                                 of                                 of            1 

Polydamas 

HECTOR 

Cebpione* 

AENEAS 

ApoheJochus 

Acamas 

HELENUS 

Oelphobus 

Asius 

PARIS 

Alcathoirs 

Agenop 

first  is  the  one  at  which  Asius  charges  in  his  chariot, 
but  is  foiled  by  the  presence  of  the  two  Lapithae. 
Now  he  is  said  at  XII  118  to  go  toward  the  left, 
which  according  to  our  rule  signifies  his  own  left, 
and  there  we  place  a  gate.  But  Aristarchus  seems 
to  have  thought  that  it  meant  the  Greek  left,  and 
so  made  the  gate  identical  with  the  other  one 
mentioned  at  XIII  679,  which  is  the  one  where 
Hector  breaks  in ;  coming  to  the  strange  conclusion 
that  there  was  only  this  one  gate  to  the  whole 
camp,  and  that  it  was  on  the  Greek  left.     Whether 

o 


2IO     COMPOSITION   OF  THE  ILIAD 

there  were  really  more  than  these  two  we  cannot 
well  determine;  and  perhaps  there  were  not.  For 
the  gate  on  the  right  front  is  never  mentioned  ; 
and  as  for  the  one  on  the  left  flank,  the  river 
might  prevent  an  easy  passage  for  the  Greek  chariots 
there,  and  it  is  not  convenient  to  imagine  too 
ready  an  access  to  the  ships  of  Achilles.  But  one 
thing  is  now  explained.  At  XVI  558  Patroclus 
says  that  Sarpedon  was  the  first  man  to  leap  upon 
or  within  the  Wall;  whereas  at  XII  438  the 
same  thing  is  said  of  Hector.  Now  Sarpedon 
was  in  fact  the  first  man  to  tear  down  a  large 
piece  of  the  battlements,  as  is  stated  at  XII  397, 
though  Hector  first  gets  through  the  gate.  And 
those  about  the  ships  of  Achilles  would  catch  a 
sight  of  Sarpedon  first,  and  tell  Patroclus  of  it, 
who  was  meanwhile  in  the  tent  of  Eurypylus; 
but  of  Hector  at  the  opposite  side  of  the  camp 
they  could  know  nothing.  So  that  the  two  verses 
are  easy  to  reconcile,  if  there  were  any  need  to 
do  it. 

Well,  Hector  is  on  the  extreme  right,  the 
strongest  man  attacking  where  the  Wall  is  lowest 
and  weakest,  and  there  he  keeps  on  after  getting 
through,  near  about  the  ships  of  Ajax.  But  Ajax 
himself  is  not  there,  but  is  defending  the  ships 
in  the  middle,  as  stated  by  Idomeneus  at  XIII  312; 
though  during  the  attack  on  the  Wall  he  was 
called   away   for   a   while   by   Menestheus  to  help 


BKS.  SECOND  &  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     2 1 1 

against  Sarpedon  and  his  Lycians.  And  so  we 
find  that  only  after  Hector  has  quitted  his  post 
at  XIII  754,  in  quest  of  Helenus  and  Deiphobus 
and  Asius,  does  he  encounter  Ajax  at  809.  Now 
suppose  Idomeneus  to  enter  the  battle  midway 
in  advance  of  the  ships  of  Ajax  and  Odysseus, 
which  is  a  fair  allowance  for  his  entering  the  fight 
toward  the  Greek  left.  Then  the  Greek  left  and 
Hector's  left  would  equally  describe  the  scene  of 
his  prowess ;  and  yet  Hector  might  not  know  any- 
thing of  it  through  his  being  round  the  corner. 
And  we  may  observe  that  this  position  would  give 
both  Hector  and  Polydamas  a  prolonged  view  of 
the  eagle  which  at  XII  200  skirts  the  Trojan 
host  from  right  to  left,  or,  as  it  is  said,  keeps 
them  off  to  its  left,  passing  from  east  to  west, 
and  dropping  a  glittering  snake  from  its  talons 
in  the  middle  of  the  throng,  about  opposite  the 
soothsayer  Helenus;  which  causes  a  conversation 
on  omens  between  Polydamas  and  Hector.  And 
again,  the  Trojan  warriors  whom  Idomeneus  would 
encounter  on  either  hand  are  Paris,  Alcathous, 
Agenor,  and  Helenus,  Deiphobus,  Asius ;  all  of 
whom  he  does.  He  slays  Asius  and  Alcathous, 
is  attacked  by  Deiphobus,  who  summons  Aeneas 
to  his  aid,  and  they  are  assisted  by  Paris  and 
Agenor;  which  brings  the  Cretan  to  a  stand. 
For  after  this  he  merely  slays  Oenomaus,  a  minor 
hero,    and    soon    withdraws    himself,    being    some- 


212     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

what  old  and  tired.  So  that  all  is  clear  and 
free  from  inconsistency,  when  the  thing  is  accu- 
rately conceived. 

That  there  are  some  improbabilities  in  the  story, 
as  presented  in  our  scheme,  I  do  not  deny.  It 
is  no  doubt  improbable  that  the  Greeks,  after  the 
treacherous  Rupture  of  the  Truce,  should  trust 
the  Trojans  again ;  whereas  the  next  day  they 
conclude  an  armistice  for  the  Burning  of  the  Dead. 
But  the  two  duels  which  occur  on  the  first  day 
of  battle,  in  Book  III  and  in  Book  VII,  do  not 
appear  to  me  to  constitute  an  improbability — cer- 
tainly not  one  sufficient  to  make  us  say,  with  Sir 
Richard  Jebb,  that  both  episodes  cannot  be  due 
to  the  same  hand.  For,  as  Dr.  Leaf  fairly  puts 
it,  one  duel  is  proposed  as  a  decisive  ordeal, 
designed  to  finish  the  war,  and  the  other  is  a 
mere  trial  of  prowess  entered  upon  out  of  a  spirit 
of  emulation  in  the  course  of  the  fight ;  to  which 
his  chief  objection  is  that  it  approaches  near  to 
the  limits  of  an  anticlimax.  But  about  this  opinions 
may  differ.  Again,  there  is  a  certain  degree  of 
improbability  in  the  fact  that  Priam  does  not  know 
by  sight  the  chief  heroes  on  the  Grecian  side,  until 
he  is  told  their  names  in  the  Teichoscopia  by 
Helen ;  and  in  the  amount  of  matter  which  the 
poet  puts  into  some  of  his  days  in  comparison 
with  others.  But  this  sort  of  improbability  is  found 
in  most  stories,  and  does  not  touch  the  question 


BKS.  SECOND  &  FIRST  :  CONCLUSION     2 1 3 

of  authorship.  It  is  really  a  question  between 
the  author  and  his  audience,  how  far  he  should 
ask  them  to  submit  to  his  straining  of  fidelity  to 
nature  in  one  direction,  for  the  sake  of  such 
advantages  as  can  only  result  from  allowing  it. 
The  best  of  poets  is  apt  to  misjudge  in  this 
respect;  but,  for  my  own  part,  I  must  say  that 
there  is  nothing  in  the  Iliad  that  I  could  wish 
away. 

Again,  there  is  undeniably  a  certain  difference  of 
emphasis  in  the  Catalogue,  but  there  appears  to 
be  no  discrepancy  from  other  parts  of  the  Iliad ; 
which  is  surely  most  remarkable,  when  we  consider 
the  great  number  of  details  which  that  document 
contains,  affording  many  chances  of  a  slip.  It  seems 
to  me  a  tenable  proposition  that  the  poet  has  de- 
voted this  canto  to  a  record  of  his  knowledge 
about  several  tribes,  such  as  the  Boeotians  and 
Arcadians,  of  whom  he  had  not  much  to  say  in 
the  sequel.  But  the  phrases  about  Boeotian  origin 
and  Hesiodic  school,  which  are  so  freely  applied 
to  the  Catalogue,  must  to  the  eye  of  sober  reason 
appear  misapplied ;  for  if  not  as  regards  Boeotia 
itself,  yet  as  regards  the  not  very  distant  region 
of  Thessaly,  the  geography  seems  to  be  specially 
confused.  And  let  me  add,  though  it  may  not 
be  strictly  relevant,  that  the  Catalogue,  however 
ill-fitted  for  public  recitation,  well  repays  a  quiet 
hour's  perusal,  and  has  many  good  things,  of  which 


214     COMPOSITION   OF  THE    ILIAD 

I  may  instance  one.  The  poet  has  already  told 
us,  or  is  about  to  tell  us,  that  Achilles  was  the 
strongest  man  and  the  swiftest  man,  and  also  the 
best  fighter,  and  had  the  best  horses  of  all  the 
Grecian  host.  But  were  he  to  insist  that  Achilles 
was  the  handsomest  of  all,  it  might  seem  to  make 
him  impossibly  perfect,  and  more  like  one  of  the 
late  Mr.  Henry  Seton  Merriman's  heroes  than  one 
of  Homer's  own.  Yet  this  perfection  also  the  poet 
is  resolved  that  his  hero  shall  have.  And  behold 
how  he  does  it :  '^  Nireus,  again,  brought  three 
shapely  ships  from  Syme ;  Nireus,  the  son  of 
Aglaia  and  King  Charops;  Nireus,  who  was  the 
fairest  man  of  all  the  Greeks  who  came  up  to 
Troy,  after  the  perfect  son  of  Peleus :  yet  he  was 
but  a  feeble  wight,  and  few  people  followed  him." 
Whilst  those  three  clanging  strokes  upon  the  name 
of  Nireus  are  ringing  in  our  ears,  he  covertly  instils 
into  our  minds  the  honied  detail  about  the  beauty 
of  Achilles;  after  which  Nireus,  having  done  his 
work,  is  dismissed  as  a  weakling  and  never  is  heard 
of  again.  So  completely  indeed  is  he  forgotten, 
that  much  the  same  thing  is  said  about  the  comeli- 
ness of  Ajax  in  Book  XVII  279 ;  but  perhaps  it 
there  relates  to  bodily  figure,  in  which  Achilles  no 
less  excels,  and  here  to  the  features  of  the  face. 
This  instance  seems  to  bring  us  close  to  the  secret 
of  Homeric  charm.  It  is  a  faultless  but  a  guileless 
art,  which  we  discern  with  a  little  attention,  smile, 


BKS.  SECOND  &  FIRST  :  CONCLUSION     215 

and  love  the  poet  all  the  more  because  of  it;  and 
even  in  the  Catalogue  its  virtue  does  not  fail. 
Lastly,  I  may  admit  that  I  see  traces  here  and 
there  that  certain  parts  of  the  poem  were  after- 
thoughts of  their  author;  but  these  I  do  not  feel 
bound  to  disclose  to  the  reader. 

And  now  I  will  end  with  a  short  description  of 
a  text  of  the  Iliad  as  I  should  like  to  see  it 
printed.  The  interpolations,  when  once  settled 
among  scholars,  should  be  removed  from  the  text 
entirely.  They  disturb  the  harmony  of  the  poem 
and  obstruct  its  onward  flow.  The  verses  which 
are  mere  mistakes  or  repetitions,  and  which  possess 
little  significance  beyond  themselves,  might  be  printed 
at  the  bottom  of  the  page,  where  they  could  be 
despatched  by  the  reader  at  a  single  glance.  But 
the  larger  interpolations,  including  the  Doloneia, 
would  be  much  better  consigned  to  an  appendix, 
where  they  could  be  studied  and  compared,  in 
respect  of  language,  law,  manners,  and  religion, 
both  with  one  another  and  with  the  original  poem. 
It  is  possible  that  a  new  perspective  may  be  found 
to  arise  among  them,  if  one  can  be  shown  to 
imply  the  previous  existence  of  another,  which  it 
would  be  a  matter  of  some  interest  to  trace ;  but 
it  is  premature  to  enter  on  this  work  at  present. 
In  the  text  itself  it  is  too  late  now  to  change  the 
old  numeration,  which  ought  to  be  retained,  with 
a  number   not   alone   against  every  fifth  line,   but 


2i6     COMPOSITION   OF  THE   ILIAD 

against  the   lines  before  and  after  an  interpolation 
which  has  thence  been  removed.     But  the  separation 
into  books  I  would  close  up  altogether,  only  mark- 
ing in  the  margin  with  a  Greek  capital  letter  the 
line  where  each  of  them  begins,  and  repeating  the 
letter  and  the  number  of  the  book  at  the  top  of 
every  right-hand  page,  for  purposes  of  easy  refer- 
ence.    Then  between  each  canto  should  be  left  a 
space   of  one   or  two  lines,   but  not  much  more ; 
for  the  poem  is  a  woven  song,  which  will  not  bear 
with  any  wide  division  of  its  parts.     But  should  it 
be    necessary   to    print   the   Iliad   in  more  volumes 
than  one,  I  would  rather  have  it  printed   in  three 
volumes    than   in   two,    each    of    them    embracing 
fifteen  triacosiads.     To  number   all   the    verses    of 
the  cantos  is  unnecessary,  for  reference  will  be  made 
as  in  the  past  to  the  verses  of  the  books,  and  the 
space    is   sufficient    to   denote  the   conclusion   of  a 
separate   triacosiad.     But   the   number  which   each 
canto   bears   should    be   annexed,   by  preference   in 
the  left-hand  margin,  as  the  number  of  the  book 
is  on  the  right;  and  it  might  perhaps  be  repeated 
at   the   top   of  every   left-hand   page,    against   the 
number  of  the  book  upon  the  right.     The  Greek 
titles  of  the  episodes  should  also  be  retained,   and 
distributed   along  the   head  of  the  page,  as  in  the 
Cambridge   text   of  Mr.   Piatt.     But  it  would   be 
useful    if    scholars    in   association    could    agree   to 
supplement  and   revise   them,   if  required,  so  that 


BKS.  SECOND  &?  FIRST :  CONCLUSION     217 

each  canto  might  possess  a  title  of  its  own,  de- 
rived from  its  leading  incident,  by  which  it  would 
familiarly  be  known.  This  task  they  are  as  com- 
petent to  undertake  for  Homer  as  the  critics  of 
antiquity,  by  whom  the  present  titles  were  assigned. 
The  reader  would  then  recognise  his  way  about 
the  poem,  which  may  be  slightly  blurred  by  abolish- 
ing the  books;  and  his  eye  would  detect  at  once 
its  whole  concatenation,  which  is  more  than  all  the 
rest  to  be  desired.  If  such  a  text  be  printed,  I 
venture  to  predict  that  the  Iliad  will  be  studied 
with  an  increase  of  zeal  from  an  increase  of  faith 
in  one  author's  design,  and  will  not  only  be  beloved, 
as  heretofore,  for  its  wealth  of  incident  and  variety 
of  characters,  steeped  in  a  depth  of  unadulterated 
feeling,  but  honoured  as  a  work  of  almost  super- 
human art. 


APPENDIX 

ON    THE    ODYSSEY 

The  first  question  of  the  reader  who  may  have  felt  the  force 
of  the  cumulative  argument  stated  above  will  be  this  :  "  If 
such  is  the  case  with  the  Iliad,  what  is  the  case  with  the 
Odyssey  ? "  To  which  our  answer  is  :  There  is  just  such 
another  rule  applicable  to  the  Odyssey,  and  it  is  a  much 
simpler  rule  to  follow  out,  as  soon  as  its  secret  is  discovered. 
It  shows  that  the  Odyssey  originally  contained  1 1,700  verses, 
and  consequently  that  there  are  410  verses  too  many  in  the 
vulgate  text.  The  foregoing  inquiry  into  the  Iliad  has  been 
conducted  without  much  reference  to  the  other  poem,  mainly 
because  I  did  not  light  upon  the  Odyssean  number  until  late, 
but  worked  out  the  scheme  of  the  Iliad  independently,  before 
making  a  thorough  search  into  the  conditions  of  its  compeer. 
There  were  several  reasons  which  induced  me  to  take  this 
course.  The  first  was  that,  even  if  such  a  law  existed  in 
the  Odyssey,  it  could  have  but  little  bearing  on  the  question 
whether  both  the  poems  were  composed  by  the  same  man  or 
not.  For  the  Odyssey  no  more  displays  signs  of  familiarity 
with  writing  than  the  Iliad  ;  and  therefore  if  such  a  law  was 
intended  to  meet  a  defect  in  the  means  of  transmission,  as 
seems  the  most  probable  account  of  it,  it  was  just  as  likely 
that  the  author  of  one  poem  would  have  had  recourse  to  it 
as  the  author  of  the  other.  Indeed  the  supposition  is  initially 
more  probable  in  the  case  of  the  Odyssey  than  in  that  of  the 


220     COMPOSITION   OF  THE  ILIAD 

Iliad.  For  there  are  a  great  number  of  formal  lines  in  it, 
like  8i,ojeve^  AaepTLciBrj,  7roXvfiri)^av*  'OSuo-crei),  which,  with- 
out a  written  text,  it  must  have  been  almost  impossible  to 
know  when  to  put  in  and  when  to  leave  out,  unless  we 
suppose  some  such  rule  of  guidance  as  a  definite  number  of 
verses.  But  for  a  rhapsodist  with  a  rosary  this  would  not 
prove  so  hard.  My  opinion  however  was,  and  is  still,  that 
the  two  poems  were  due  to  different  authors  ;  and  since  the 
presence  of  a  similar  law  in  both  would  not  tend  to  over- 
throw it,  there  was  little  other  reason  to  think  that  the 
intentions  of  one  poet  would  throw  much  light  on  the 
intentions  of  the  other.  The  second  reason  was  that  the 
matter  is  of  much  less  importance  in  the  Odyssey  than  in 
the  Iliad.  We  can  all  of  us  see  our  way  clearly  through 
the  Odyssey,  whereas  most  of  us  stick  at  some  point  of  the 
Iliad,  lose  the  thread,  resume  at  a  favourite  place,  or  only 
persevere  with  the  whole  from  a  sense  of  duty.  It  is  over 
the  Iliad  that  the  battle  has  been  waged  ;  for  grand  as  that 
poem  is,  in  its  present  state  it  can  scarcely  be  read  from 
cover  to  cover  with  a  perfect  sense  of  enjoyment.  But  in 
the  Odyssey  these  troubles  are  not  felt.  Lastly,  I  must 
admit  that  after  a  few  abortive  trials  at  the  Odyssey  had 
revealed  no  similar  law,  I  was  in  no  great  hurry  to  find  it ; 
for  it  seemed  to  me  that  the  number  in  the  Iliad  must  be 
confessed  to  be  pretty  plain  and  obvious,  when  all  attempts 
at  reducing  the  Odyssey  to  a  like  conformity  to  rule  had 
ended  in  failure. 

Nevertheless  a  desire  to  ascertain  the  truth  upon  this 
subject,  and  to  derive  a  confirmation  of  our  view  about 
the  Iliad  from  a  poem  much  akin  to  it,  and  separated,  as 
Mr.  Andrew  Lang  has  shown,  from  the  Cyclic  poems  as 
Achaean  from  Ionian,  not  to  speak  of  the  great  philological 
interest  of  such  a  rule,  if  found,   prompted   me  to  renew 


APPENDIX  221 

the  inquiry  with  more  dih'gence.  And  the  result  of  it  is 
this.  The  poet  of  the  Odyssey  employs  a  canto  half  as 
long  again  as  Homer,  consisting  of  450  verses,  or  if  two 
of  them  be  taken  together,  making  a  section  of  900  lines. 
This  is  much  about  what  we  might  expect,  considering  the 
lighter  character  of  his  verse.  There  are  26  cantos  in  all, 
and  the  exact  middle  of  the  poem  is  after  XII  142.  The 
first  6  cantos  take  us  down  to  the  moment  when  the  hero 
falls  asleep  on  the  coast  of  Phasacia,  at  the  close  of  the  Fifth 
Book.  The  next  6  conclude  with  the  interruption  of  his 
Narrative  to  Alcinous  at  Book  XI  332.  The  next  2,  the 
central  pair  of  the  poem,  which  have  to  effect  the  difficult 
transition  from  his  foreign  to  his  domestic  adventures,  are 
peculiar  in  several  respects,  but  chiefly  in  this,  that  the  last 
of  them  ends  at  XIII  145,  not  indeed  in  the  middle  of  a 
speech,  but  in  the  middle  of  a  duologue  between  Poseidon 
and  Zeus,  in  which  the  hostile  and  the  friendly  god  are 
reconciled  about  the  hero's  fate.  In  the  first  part  Poseidon 
bitterly  complains  of  the  safe  return  of  Odysseus,  and  Zeus, 
sagely  disclaiming  all  idea  of  diminishing  Poseidon's  prestige, 
gives  him  full  leave  to  avenge  himself  at  leisure.  This  seems 
to  foreshadow  the  hero's  mild  death  from  the  sea,  already 
foretold  in  XI  127-137  and  remembered  at  XXIII  274- 
284.  A  pause  ensues,  during  which  this  politic  answer 
takes  effect,  and  in  the  second  part  Poseidon  waives  his  right 
to  instant  vengeance  on  Odysseus,  but  expresses  a  desire  of 
blotting  out  at  once  the  Phasacians,  who  have  transported 
the  hero  in  safety  to  his  native  shores.  Zeus  abets  the  pro- 
ject, and  the  brothers  are  at  one.  The  next  6  cantos  carry 
us  on  through  the  Recognition  by  Telemachus  in  the  swine- 
herd's hut,  and  the  Boxing  with  Irus  in  the  palace,  to  the 
Removal  of  the  Arms  overnight  at  XIX  52.  And  the  last 
6,  beginning  with  the  Conversation  with  Penelope  on  the 


222     COMPOSITION  OF  THE  ILIAD 

same   night,  take  us   down   to   the   end  of  the   poem   at 
XXIV  548. 

I  append  a  scheme  of  the  Odyssey  constructed  on  similar 
lines  to  that  of  the  Iliad.  The  reader  will  be  able  to  find 
out  most  of  the  arguments  for  excluding  irregular  verses  by 
consulting  editions  of  the  poem.  He  will  learn  from  Mr. 
Merry,  for  instance,  why  I  99-101  are  excluded  ;  and  from 
Mr.  Monro  (Appendix,  p.  312)  why  I  238  is  excluded  here, 
but  retained  at  XIV  368,  while  I  239-240  are  here  retained, 
but  excluded  at  XIV  369-370.  He  will  find  the  Cambridge 
Homer  of  Mr.  Piatt  in  some  places  a  useful  corrective  to 
Mr.  Monro,  who  was  not  so  conservative  in  dealing  with 
the  Odyssey  as  he  was  in  dealing  with  the  Iliad.  In  a  few 
cases,  such  as  XII  420-425,  he  may  have  to  look  for  ob- 
jections in  a  German  book,  such  as  Otto  Seeck's  Die  Quellen 
der  Odyssee^  for  I  do  not  know  that  any  English  editor  has 
spoken  of  them.  In  other  cases  he  will  soon  discover  the 
objections  for  himself,  when  once  his  attention  has  been 
drawn  to  the  passages.  He  will  notice  small  points,  such  as 
Travvvxtof:  in  I  443  and  iravvv')(C'q  in  II  434,  which  warn  us 
against  starting  a  new  canto  with  a  new  day,  and  will  re- 
member what  we  said  about  Iliad  VII  476-478.  In  fact 
this  poet  never  begins  a  canto  with  a  dawn,  unless  XII  143 
be  counted  as  such  a  case,  though  he  has  mentioned  that  pheno- 
menon as  often  perhaps  as  any  poet  that  ever  sang.  Like  his 
predecessor,  he  never  opens  or  closes  a  canto  twice  alike. 
Unlike  his  predecessor,  he  sometimes  divides  his  cantos  in 
the  course  of  a  speech,  but  only  when  this  speech  is  a  long 
narrative,  like  that  of  Odysseus,  which  is  divided  at  IX  104 
and  IX  555  and  X  448  and  XII  142,  or  that  of  Menelaus, 
which  is  divided  at  IV  440 ;  an  exception  which  explains 
itself.  The  reader  will  observe  that  we  retain  the  Song  of 
Demodocus  in  VIII  266-369,  and  the  latter  part  of  the 


APPENDIX  223 

Scene  in  Hades  in  XI  568-629,  and  the  Conclusion  in 
XXIII  297~XXIV  548,  with  certain  excisions.  As  to  the 
first,  there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  sort  of  reason,  except 
a  prudish  one,  for  rejecting  it.  The  second  is  a  striking 
passage,  which  I  readily  concede  could  hardly  have  occurred 
in  the  Iliad,  but  which  seems  to  me  by  no  means  so  unlikely 
in  the  Odyssey.  The  last,  though  it  exhibits  some  traces  of 
hasty  workmanship,  perhaps  not  unnatural  at  the  end  of  a 
lengthy  poem,  is  so  plainly  anticipated,  at  least  as  regards 
Laertes,  in  I  187-193  and  other  places,  that  the  story  would 
be  incomplete  without  it.  Finally,  let  me  say  that  I  do  not 
wish  to  thrust  this  scheme  or  any  other  down  the  reader's 
throat,  least  of  all  in  the  Odyssey,  where  it  can  perfectly 
well  be  done  without.  But  experience  has  taught  me  that 
one's  pleasure  in  reading  the  poem,  and  one's  sense  of  security 
in  pressing  home  the  poet's  meaning,  are  enhanced  by  a  con- 
fidence in  its  substantial  correctness ;  and  it  may  be  that 
others  will  experience  the  same  or  a  similar  result. 


224 


TABLE  OF  CANTOS 


Canto. 


II. 


III. 


IV. 


V. 


VI. 


VII. 


Book. 


1-444 
gg-ioj 
238 
36(>-359 

I-  14 


11.     15-434 
iii.       1-30 


iii.    31-48] 
7S 


iii.  482-497 

493 
iv.       I  -  440 
285-289 


iv.  441-847 
V.       1-43 


V.     44-493 


VI.      I -331 

vii.       I -132 

j6-  68 


Number 
of  Verses. 


444 

-  3 

-  I 

-  4 
+  14 

450 


420 

+   30 

450 


45 1 

-     I 

450 


16 

—  I 
+  440 

-  5 

450 


407 
+  43 

45° 


450 


331 
+  132 

-  13 
450 


Canto. 


VIII. 


IX. 


X. 


XL 


XII. 


XIII. 


XIV. 


Book. 


vu.  133-347 
viii.       I  -  235 


viii.  236-586 

303.  346 

ix.       I  - 104 

jo,8g-go 


IX.  los-sss 
4S3 


ix.  556-566 

X.       I  -  448 

i8g,  2S3,  26s 

368-372,  430 


X.  449-574 
4S6,  470,  482 

504^  5(>5 
xi.      I  -  332 
60,  g2,  245 


xi.  333-640 
xii.       1-142 


xu.  143-453 

420-425 

xiii.      I  - 145 


Number 
of  Verses. 


215 
+  235 

450 


351 

-  2 

+  104 

-  3 

450 


451 

•     I 

450 


II 

+448 

-  3 

-  6 

450 


126 

-  3 

-  2 

+  332 

-  ■-( 

450 


308 
+  142 

450 


+  145 
450 


IN  THE   ODYSSEY 


225 


Canto. 


XV. 


XVI. 


XVII. 


XVIII. 


XIX. 


XX. 


Book. 


xiii.  146-440 
320-323 
347-348 

xiv.       1  - 164 

16 1  - 162 


xiv.  165-533 

309-370 

457-522 

XV.       I  - 159 

(>3>     74 
r  13 -Tig,  i3g 


XV.  160-557 

^95 
XVI.       I-   53 


xvi.    54-481 

TOT.  295-298 

xvii,       X  -   27 


xvii.     28  -  606 

49,  107-150 

505-5S8 


xviii.       1-428 
138-186 

.     393 
xix.       1-52 


Number 
of  Verses. 


29s 

-  4 

-  2 
+  164 

-  I 

-  2 

450 


369 

-  2 

-  66 

+  159 

-  2 

-  8 

450 


398 
-      I 

+   53 

450 


428 

-     S 
+  27 

450 


579 

-  45 

-  84 

450 


428 

-  29 

-  I 
+    52 

450 


Canto. 


XXI. 


XXII. 


XXIII. 


XXIV. 


XXV. 


XXVI. 


Book. 


XIX.     53-507 
60,  153 

n5-n7 


xix.  508-604 

XX.       1-370 

66-  82 


XX.  371-394 
XXI.       1-434 

66,  276 

295-302 

xxn.      1-25 


xxii.    26-477 
43*  '9' 


xxii.  478  -  501 

xxiii.      I  -  372 

121  -  ^28 

218-224 

310-343 

xxiv.      1-97 


xxiv.    98-548 

121 


Number 
of  Verses. 


455 
■  2 

3 
450 


97 
+  370 
-  17 

450 


24 
+  434 

-  23 

-  2 

-  8 
+  25 

450 


452 
-  2 


450 


24 
+372 

-  2 

-  7 

-  34 
+  97 

450 


451 

-  I 

450 


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